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BISHOP HOB ART'S CHARGE, 

ENTITLED 

** Corruptions of the Church of Rome, contrasted with 
certain Protestant Errors" 




IN A 



LETTER TO THAT PRELATE, 



BY 



GEORGE E. IRONSIDE, A. M. 



LELLOW OE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OE NEW-YORK, 



•The Spirit ©f Troth shall guide you into all truth." St. John 16. v. 13. 



WASHINGTON^ 

PRINTED BY DAVIS AND FORCE, PENNSYLVANIA AVENl/£, 

1820. 



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ON 



BISHOP HOBART'3 CHARGE, 



ENTITLED 



i6 Corruptions of the Church of Rome, contrasted with 
certain Protestant Errors" 



IN A 



LETTER TO THAT PRELATE. 



BY 



GEORGE E. IRONSIDE, A. M. 



FELLOW OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-YORK. 



"The Spirit of Truth shall guide you into all truth." St. John 16. v. 13. 



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WASHINGTON : 
PRINTED BT DAVIS AND FORCE, PENNSYLVANIA AVIINVE, 

1820. 



Peabodylnst.iBalto, 
Jam. -28 



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OBSERVATIONS, &c. 



HIGHT REVEREND SIR: 

I have been just favoured with a sight of your 
Charge to your Clergy of New- York, in 1817, and to the 
Clergy of the Diocese of Connecticut, in 1818; and I cannot 
help making a few observations upon its matter, and the man- 
icr in which it appears before the public. In these, however, 
• shall be guided solely by a defensive view of those charges 
A corruption, asserted by you, against that. Church of which, 
jj the blessing of God, I am an unworthy member. You are 
oo well aware of my personal regard and esteem for you, to 
suppose, for a moment, that any personal insinuation should 
ever issue from my pen against you ; and I am so well per- 
suaded of your candour, as to feel confident that whatever I 
may advance in support of the holy faith, which I have em- 
braced, will be received with that attention, which a matter 
so important most justly demands. Indeed, the first para*- 
graph of your charge inspires me with this confidence. 

The investigation of truth often becomes, from cir- 
cumstances, not only tedious and difficult, but sometimes 
painful : and, as you very justly observe, " The duty of vigi- 
lant and zealous examination of popular opinions in religion, 
is very far from being inviting. Much more pleasant is it to 
swim with, than to stem the current ; to be carried along with 
the popular gale, than with incessant and wearying exertion to 
struggle against it ; to be hailed by the applauses of the hosts, 
in whose ranks, or as whose leaders, men bear to a triumph 
the opinions or the measures of the day, than to meet their 
odium by refusing to enlist with them, or by opposition, some- 
what to perplex their progress, if not to diminish their suc- 
cess." But as our duty to God and his truth should be supe- 
rior to human respects, so the encouragement held out, that 
the undeviating diligence which we exhibit in defence of 
these truths will tend to our eternal happiness, ought to silence 
every murmur, and urge us forward in the thorny path of in- 
vestigation. 




/f£> 




While, however, we are engaged in a strict and seriour 
scrutiny, into " popular opinions" in religion, we ought to be 
guided by candour, temper, and a rigid regard to decorum. 
Men of the present day are too prudent to sutler prejudice to 
usurp the place of candour, or the ebullitions of passion and 
abuse to pass current for moderation and good breeding. 
And I am truly sorry to observe that your Reverence has per- 
mitted these wayward passions to appear in several instances^ 
which I shall take the liberty of pointing out, as I pass along. 

You observe, page 6th — " The period was when the decrees 
of ecclesiastical councils were received as the infallible deci- 
sions of christian verity ; when it was supposed that the spirit 
which presided in the assembly of the inspired apostles, and 
led them into all truth, exercised the same divine agency in 
the subsequent councils of fallible men," &c. Now, Right 
Reverend Sir, did not your Charge afterwards tell me, that you 
believed the scriptures to be the word of God, I should be much 
tempted to doubt your belief of them. For our blessed Lord 
declares to his church, through the apostles, that he would 
send to her the Spirit of Truth to guide her into all truth. 
Was this only to be a temporary presence, and only as long as 
the apostles should remain with the faithful upon earth ? Or, 
was this Spirit to continue through all ages, as he himself has 
declared ? Here, almost at your outset, you are placed be- 
tween the horns of a dilemma. If the Holy Ghost were not 
present with those councils, then neither could he be said to 
remain with Christ's church to the consummation of ages, for 
these councils were the lawful representatives of the whole 
church. If, therefore, he were not present, Christ has not 
fulfilled his promise. This you will not maintain. Now, if 
the Divine Spirit were present with this church, then so was 
he with those councils of which you have written so harshly. 
This you ought not to deny. Now, if the Spirit of God pre- 
sided in these councils, as you have admitted, the dogmas set 
forth by these councils, and ratified by the supreme head of 
the church, must receive the same implicit reverence and 
submission as any other decision of the living God. The 
Almighty is not changeable. " He is the same yesterday, to- 
day, and for ever," and what he has promised, he will assuredly 
perform. 

By your precipitate eagerness to show your dislike to the^ 
Catholic church, you have, in this paragraph, fallen into 
something like an inconsistency. You charge her with being 
guilty of admitting the decisions of fallible men as those of the 
oracles of the living God, and in the same breath say, that she 
" when enlightened by science, shook off her degrading bond- 
age, and carried the torch of inquiry into the recesses of the 
conclave, whence, it was said, issued the unerring decrees of 



the Divine Spirit ; so many tenets shocking to reason, both 
for their folly and their blasphemy ; so much intrigue and 
corruption, disgusting to the honourable and upright mind, dis- 
graced the counsels and conduct of those who, wearing the 
apostles' commission, claimed also the guidance of apostolic 
inspiration, that their decrees were rejected equally with their 
claims to infallibility, as repugnant both to the dictates of com- 
mon sense and the decisions of the word of God." If there 
be not something, Right Reverend Sir, in this paragraph, incon- 
sistent with matter of fact, as well as common sense, I know 
not what fact and common sense are. In the first place you 
assert that the " Church of Rome" rejected the decrees of 
her councils, and their claims to infallibility. This assertion 
even you yourself must reject as false, on serious reflection, 
or why load her with so much abuse ? In the second place 
you insinuate that those, who wear the apostles' commission, 
have not that claim to the guidance of the spirit of truth, 
which our blessed Lord himself has granted to them, " Lo, I 
am with you always, to the consummation of ages" St. Matt. 28. 
That the divine spirit should " teach the church all truth to 
the end of the world," and that this church should be a false 
guide : that Christ should be with this church to the consumma- 
tion of ages, and that this church under his guidance should 
have erred, although built on a rock, and bidding defiance to 
the gates of hell and the powers of darkness ; that it should 
be the pillar and ground of truth, and still the support of false- 
hood, superstition, and absurdity, are inconsistencies, whose 
reconciliation should be the subject of your next Charge. 
What are we to think of this inconsistency ? How are we to 
account for it otherwise, than by supposing that passion and 
prejudice had so darkened your mind, that you could not dis- 
tinguish between what they proposed, and the real matter of 
fact? 

The church of Rome never denied her faith, never im- 
pugned the acts of general councils, nor ever held that the 
spirit of God did not always act with the church, as he him- 
self has promised, and that he has sent his Spirit of truth to 
guide her into all truth ; and with this presence and this guid- 
ance, that she can never err from the faith, but continue firm 
and infallible, as her gracious spouse has taught her to believe, 
to the consummation of ages. And her tenets " shocking to 
reason both for their folly and blasphemy," have been long 
ago fully explained to the satisfaction of those, who will open 
their eyes to the truth, to be as consonant with reason, and 
as far removed from blasphemy, as the doctrine of the Trini- 
ty in Unity, or the Incarnation, which you might with equal 
justice impugn. What you mean by the church being " en- 



6 

ligntened by science, and shaking off her degrading bondage,* 5 
I am at a loss to discover. When was it that the sun of science 
did not shine on the church of God ? That its rays wore some- 
times obscured and did not shed such lustre a. c , at others 
we can readily admit ; but that it was so very dark, 
as your language seems to represent it, can be by no 
means allowed. We are well aware that during those barbar- 
ous ages, when war was the only science known in Europe, 
and when the hordes of barbarians from the north deformed 
the fair face of Christendom, then every thing was opposed to 
knowledge and science ; then these were obliged to seek for 
shelter in the monastic cell or in the hermit's cave, and often 
there they were not safe from the common destroyer. But 
although they were persecuted and hunted down, still some 
glimmerings kept them alive, and where ? In the bosom of 
the church, and no where else. All the light of science, that 
was then in the world, was confined to monasteries and 
to monastic institutions. Whence then was the Catholic 
church enlightened but from her own bosom, where she had 
cherished the only remaining spark, that lingered in the world? 
The " degrading bondage," which you mention as being 
shaken off, is equally undefined. If you mean the bondage of 
ignorance, naturally superinduced by a long state of savage 
warfare, not only against nations but religion and knowledge, 
we agree. If not, when you shall choose to explain, we shall 
be ready to give our assent or dissent, according to the truth 
of the proposition. You constantly throw s out much abuse 
against the Roman catholic church, without condescending to 
go further than to throw it, in such a manner, as that it shall be 
left to the minds of your readers to form what conjectures 
they please, either with regard to its truth or its enormity, 
This, Right Reverend Sir, I conceive to be dictated by a spirit 
of hostility, and to be engendered by passion and prejudice. 
This is not the path through which we should travel in the 
pursuit of truth. 

The infallibility of the church seems to draw forth no small 
share of your asperity ; it is represented by you " as repug- 
nant both to the dictates of common sense and the decisions 
of the word of God." But upon a serious and dispassionate 
view of the matter, we 'shall find that the word of God sup- 
ports it, and that the dictates of common sense, regulated by 
that word, must, of necessity, embrace it. 

You admit the divine authority of the scripture, and, if so, 
you must believe it, not receiving one part and rejecting ano- 
ther according to your own "judgment, taste, and fancy," 
but you must believe the whole or none, and that too with a 
divine faith. Our blessed Redeemer says, St Mark xvi. 16 ; 



8 

*l fie that believeth and is baptized shall he saved, and he that 
believeth not shall be damned." IN^ow it cannot be supposed 
that God should lay such a heavy obligation upon christians, 
as is contained in this text, and at the same time leave them 
in the dark in regard to the truths he has really revealed. 
But you have conceded one thing, which will much help to 
obviate the difficulty. You quote one of the articles of your 
church, which says, " the church is a witness and keeper of 
holy writ," and has " authority in controversies of faith." 
Art. 20. We want no surer guide than the church, and ad- 
mitting this, we must either renounce revealed religion en- 
tirely, or submit to all the decisions of the Catholic church. 
For the Catholic church, or the church of Rome was surely 
the church, and the only church, before the reformation. If 
it were not this church, why do protestant bishops so strenu- 
ously maintain that they have received their orders through it? 
Your Articles, Right Reverend Sir, admit the authenticity 
of the Holy scriptures upon the authority of the church, and 
where can be the consistency of rejecting the authority of the 
church, in her interpretation of those divine oracles, which you 
have received from her ? If the church is to be securely relied 
upon in one instance, so should she in another. The motives 
of credibility are the same in both, and we cannot, with con- 
sistency yield to them in one respect, without yielding to them 
in the other. But you admit the holy scriptures to be the 
word of God, and that too on the authority of the church 5 
taking this as admitted, .let us see what these divine oracles 
say respecting the church. Our blessed Redeemer, in ad- 
dressing St. Peter, says " upon this rock will I build my churchy 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." St. Matt, 
xvi. 18. And again, when comforting his disciples, who 
were grieved at the idea of his departure from them, he says, 
" 1 will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Para- 
clete, that he may abide with you for ever ; the Spirit of truth." 
St. John xiv. 16, 17. And again, upon the same occasion^ 
" when the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into 
all truth." St. John xvi. 13. And again, " But the Paraclete, 
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, ht 
will teach you all -things, and bring all things to your minds, 
whatsoever I shall have said to you." St. John xiv. 26. 
And again, after his resurrection, he gives them a promise of 
his perpetual presence with them ; "Behold I am with you all 
days, even to the consummation of the world." St. Matt, xxviii. 
20. Jesus Christ says, whoever " will not hear the church, 
let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. St. Matt, xviii. 
17. St. Paul calls the church " the pillar and ground of truth." 
1. Tim. iii. 14. These texts, Right Reverend Sir, prove be- 



8 

yond the possibility of doubt, the perpetual duration and in- 
fallibility of his church. That God, who cannot deceive has 
declared that the gates of hell, the powers of darkness, shall 
not prevail, against his church. If this church, therefore 
were to fall into damnable errors, the gates of hell would pre- 
vail against her, and Christ's promise would be falsified. The 
Protestaat Episcopal Church has admitted the homilies of 
the church of England in her 39 Articles. The homily " of 
peril of idolatry," part third says ; " the laity and clergy, 
learned and unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees of men 
women and children of whole Christendom, were at once 
drowned in abominable idolatry, of all other vices the most 
detested by God, and damnable to man, and that for the 
space of eight hundred years and more." Such is the doctrine 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church. During this long period 
of time, there could have been no visible church of Christ 
upon earth. All had gone out of the fold, from the hoary 
head, sinking into the grave, to the infant " mewling and puk- 
ing in its nurse's arms," and had continued out of the church 
" for the space of eight hundred years and more." But, Right 
Reverend Sir, you very properly assert that the church is, 
always has been, and always will be visible, see pp. 24, 26, 
27. Therefore this doctrine of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church is impugned by you. Either the doctrine of the Pro- 
testant Episcopal church is false, or the promise of Christ 
that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church is so. 
You contend for the truth of our Lord's promise, and so do 
we. If therefore the God of truth cannot speak falsehood, the 
doctrine of the Protestant Episcopal church must be abso- 
lutely false. 

The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, is to abide with the 
church for ever, to guide her into all truth, and to teach her all 
things ; nay, the blessed Jesus himself is to be with her even 
to the end of the world. If, therefore, God be infallible, and 
his word truth, what connexion can there be between him and 
a fallible church ? His presence secures her infallibility, inas- 
much as he is her divine head. The head and the body must 
be homogeneous, or there must be an unnatural connexion 
between them. To adduce here the stale doctrine held forth 
generally by protestant controversial writers, that the promise 
of always abiding with them, was confined only to the apostles 
and sacred penmen, you must allow to be without colour or 
pretext whatever. Our blessed Lord would not have been so 
particular, if it respected only them ; nor has it the least ap- 
pearance of reason that it should be so. Taylor's dissuasive, 
as quoted by the author of an anonymous pamphlet, lately 
published in your city, asserts that the spirit of infallibility 



9 

was to depart with the Apostles, but Jesus Christ says " Be- 
hold I am with you ail days, even to the consummation of the 
world." Now, Right Reverend Sir, which of these do you wish 
to believe ? " The Spirit of Truth," says the blessed Jesus, 
44 shall abide with you for ever." The Apostles did not live 
for ever ; therefore, that Holy Spirit of Truth was to abide 
with the Apostles, in their successors, for ever. Nothing can be 
more clear, nothing more easily understood ; and docility is 
our oaly duty under such plain truths. The blessed Re- 
deemer commanded his Apostles to "go into the whole world 
and preach t'ae gospel to every creature 5" this they did, 
while on earth, and left behind them a succession of men, who 
should proceed acting as they had done, to the end of time. 
Had it not been so, his sovereign command would have been 
nugatory, inasmuch as his Apostles did not themselves person- 
ally preach the gospel to every human creature, nor to half 
the human creatures that were then in existence. But they 
and their successors have continued from that day to this, 
endeavouring to fultil the command of their Lord, and will con- 
continue to the end of time, in the execution of the same holy 
duty. 

St. Paul says, Ephe-s. 5. v. 25, 26, 27. " Christ loved the- 
ehurch, and delivered himself up for it, that he might sanctify 
it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life. That 
he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having 
spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy 
and without blemish." If this be characteristic of the church 
of Christ, (and we have God's authority for it,) in what sense 
can she be said to have fallen ? Our blessed Lord has in no 
place given us even a hint that she should fall from that purity, 
which becomes the spouse of the fountain of purity ; and 
surely, if she have fallen into idolatry, or deviated from the 
faith, she must be polluted. But he has declared that he 
gave himself for her, that after having purified her by the laver^ 
of water in the word of life, she might be pure from spot or 
wrinkle, and be holy and without blemish. Must we, to please 
our own wayward fancies, or to follow the dictates of our 
boosted reason, or to serve any other sinister purpose, de- 
clare that to be polluted, which the God of purity has declared 
spotless, or that to be unholy, which he has sanctified ? You 
know better than this, Right Reverend Sir; and although we ad- 
mit with you, that some particular parts of the church have 
fallen from the faith, yet we can never allow that the Catholic 
Church has so fallen, or else we libel the divine veracity. 
Has Christ died in vain ? Surely not, unless in regard to those, 
who have rejected the calls of divine grace, and wilfully lent 
a deaf ear to his gracious invitations. 

2 






10 

St. Paul, as above quoted, calls the church the pillar and 
ground of truth; now, if the principal support of truth be^ 
come decayed and rotten, what becomes of the truth sup- 
ported by it ? The temple of Dagon, the false Philistine god, 
was supported by two pillars, and when Sampson had prayed to 
Almighty God, that his strength might be restored, he shook 
the two pillars and the house fell. Judges xvi. 23, &c. Now 
the truth, in the same manner, is supported by its pillar and 
foundation, the church; if, therefore, the pillar fall into damna- 
ble errors, it becomes rotten to the core, and of course can 
no more support its burden. Truth therefore must fall with 
it. But God hath said of his church, " This is my rest for 
ever and ever : here will I dwell, for I have chosen it." 
Psalm cxxxi. 14. We must not therefore suppose that God 
will forsake his church, in which he desires to dwell, nor suf- 
fer her to be overcome by the powers of darkness, contrary 
to his promise ; nor will he permit the pillar, which supports 
his truth, to fail or be corrupted. 

In the ninth article of the Apostles' creed, (admitted by the 
Protestant Episcopal church, as well as the Nicene creed, in 
her eighth article,) we are taught to profess our faith in the 
following words ; " I believe the Holy Catholic church, the 
Communion of saints ;" and to this are added in the Nicene 
creed the two titles of one and apostolical. Now, Right Rev- 
erend Sir, we have here the essential and unchangeable attri- 
butes of the church, that of her being one, holy, catholic or 
universal, apostolical and the communion of saints. If ever, 
therefore, the church should fail entirely, or cease to be one, 
holy, catholic, apostolical, or the communion of Saints, this 
ninth article of the creed would then become false, and no 
one could profess this, as an article of his faith, without 
being guilty of falsehood. Since, however, by the 8th ar- 
ticle of the Protestant Episcopal church, " these creeds ought 
thoroughly to be received and believed : for they may be 
proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture," who- 
ever shall call this article of the creed false, must of necessity 
become guilty of blasphemy. Or, should the church fall 
into such gross errors, as to destroy the faith, the creed would 
be false ; but the creed, being founded upon and proved by 
most certain warrants of holy scripture, can never be false ; 
therefore the true church can never err from this faith, but 
continue for ever holy, and of course infallible in all her de- 
cisions of faith. Bishop Pearson, whose exposition of the 
creed is a standard work in the Protestant Episcopal 
church, says upon this article; " when I say, I believe the 
holy catholic church, I mean, that there is a church, which 
is holy, and which is catholic." p. 335, 4th Lond. edit. — - 




11 

>' It is not only an acknowledgement of a church which shall 
be, but also of that which is, that which was, when the creed 
began, and was to continue till the creed shall end, which is 
proposed to our belief in every age, as being ; and thus 
ever since the church was constituted, the church itself, as 
being, was the object of the faith of the church believing. 
The existence therefore of the church of Christ (as that 
church is before understood by us, p. 336, that is, as a visi- 
ble and known society) is the continuation of it in an actual 
being from the first collection of it in the time of the Apos- 
tles unto the consummation of all things. A collection un- 
interruptedly continued in actual existence of believing per- 
sons and congregations in all ages unto the end of the world." 
p. 342. 

Now this indeed is a proper object of faith, because it is 
grounded only on the promises of God. There can be no 
other assurance of the perpetuity of this church, but what 
we have from him that built it, " The church is not of such 
a nature, as would necessarily, once begun, preserve itself 
for ever. Many thousand persons have fallen totally from 
the faith professed, and so apostatized from the church. — 
Many particular churches have been wholly lost, many can- 
dlesticks have been removed." p. 342. " But though the 
providence of God does suffer many particular churches to 
perish, yet the promise of the same God will never permit 
that all of them at once shall perish. When Christ spoke 
first particularly to St. Peter, he sealed his speech with a 
powerful promise of perpetuity, saying ; ' thou art Peter, and 
upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell 
.-hall not prevail against it,' When he spoke generally to all 
the rest of the Apostles, go teach all nations baptizing them, 
&lc. Matt, xxviii. v. 19. he added a promise to the same ef- 
fect, ; and lo, 1 am with you alway even unto the end of the 
world.' The first of these promises assures us of the con- 
tinuance of the church, because it is built upon a rock — the 
latter of these promises gives not only an assurance of the 
continuance of the church, but also the cause of that continu- 
ance, which is the presence of Christ p. 342. " Wherefore 
being Christ does promise his presence unto the church even 
to the end of the world, he does thereby assure us of the ex- 
istence of the church until that time, of which his presence 
i- the cause. Indeed this is the city of the Lord of hosts, 
the city of our God : God will establish it for ever, as the 
great prophet of the church has said." Psalm xlviii. v. 8. p. 
342. •• Ijpon tin; certainty of this truth the existence of the 
church has been propounded as an object; of our faith in 









12 

every age of Christianity, and so it shall be still unto the end 
of the world." p. 343. 

Were I to proceed, Right Reverend Sir, I might swell 
this letter to a much larger size than 1 purpose. I might 
point out to you, how this learned writer describes the unity 
of the church, oat of which he proves salvation to be im- 
possible from many texts of scripture ; but, as I know you to 
be intimately conversant with the work, I shall forbear, and 
only use the liberty of transcribing his summation of the ar- 
ticle. 

" Whoever then professes to believe the holy Catholic 
church, is understood to declare thus much. I am fully per- 
suaded and make a free confession of this as a necessary and 
infallible truth, that Christ by the preaching of the Apostles 
did gather unto himself a church consisting of thousands of 
believing persons, and numerous congregations, to which he 
daily added such as should be saved, and will successively 
add unto the same, to the end of the world. So that by 
virtue of his all-sufficient promise, I am assured that there 
was, has been hitherto, now is, and hereafter will be as long 
as the sun and moon endure, a church of Christ one and the 
sao;e. This church I believe in general, holy in respect of 
the author, end, institution, and administration of it. Par- 
ticularly in the members here I acknowledge it really holy, 
and in the same hereafter perfectly holy. I look upon this 
church not like that of the Jews, limited to one people, con- 
fined to one nation, but by the appointment and command of 
Christ, and by the efficacy of his assisting power to be dis- 
seminated through all nations, to be extended to all places, 
to be propagated to all ages, to contain in it all truths neces- 
sary to be known, to exact absolute obedience from all men 
to the commands of Christ, and to furnish us with all graces 
necessary to make our persons acceptable, and our actions 
well pleasing in the sight of God. And thus I believe the 
Holy Catholic church." 

From the doctrine thus delivered by this learned man, I 
would infer that, inasmuch as we are taught to profess our 
faith in the church of Christ having been, that it will be, and 
also that it is, or, to use his own words ; " I am assured that 
there was, has been hitherto, now is, and hereafter will be, 
as long as the sun and moon endure, a church of Christ one 
and the same," and that the attributes essential and unchange- 
able of this church, according to the same creed, are her 
being one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolical, and the commu- 
nion of saints ; her indef edibility, that is to say, that she will 
never perish, fail, or be destroyed entirely ; and her infalli~ 










13 

bihty, that is to say, that she has been, is, and always will be 
an unerring guide in decisions of faith, are fully proved. 

I might here adduce a multitude of testimonies from the 
Holy Fathers of the church in proof of the same article of 
our faith, but I shall content myself with the following. St. 
Cyprian, de Unitate Ecclesiae, * says ; " we go into error, 
whilst we do not return to the origin of truth, nor is the 
head sought after, nor is the doctrine of our heavenly Mas- 
ter kept, which, if any one consider and examine, does not 
need a long treatise or argument. The proof of faith is 
easy from the brevity of truth. The Lord says to Peter, I 
say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock (or 
Peter) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not 
vanquish her." And St. Augustine, t Serm. 2 Psalm 101, v. 
23, n. 8, speaking of the unity of the church, says ; " that 
which was the church of all nations does not now exist, but 
has perished: thus say those who are not in her. O impu- 
dent speech ! She is not, because thou art not in her. Take 
care therefore that thou be in her : for she shall be, although 
thou be not in her. This abominable and detestable speech, 
full of presumption and falsehood, supported by no truth, il- 
luminated by no wisdom, seasoned with no salt ; this vain, 
rash, inconsiderate, and pernicious speech, the Spirit of God 
foresaw. The scriptures have been fulfilled, all nations have 
be! eved, but the church has apostatized and perished from 
all nations. What is this, * announce to me the fewness of 
my days !' He has both announced it, and that word has 
not been void. Who has announced it to me, but the zoay 
himself? How has he announced it? 'Behold I am with 
you even to the consummation of time." In the above 
cited passage from St. Cyprian, he clearly proves to us how 
we fall into error, and schism, by not returning to God, the 
origin of truth, by not seeking the head, and keeping the 

* Ad errorem defiectitur ecclesia " dum ad veritatis originem non reditur, 
nee caput quaeritur, nee magistri coelestis doctrina servatur, Quae si quis con- 
sideret et examinet, tractatu longo atque argumento opus non est. Probatio 
est ad fidem facilis compendio veritatis. Loquitur Dominus ad Petrum. — 
" Ego tibi dico,'' inquit, "quia tu es Petrus, et super istam petrarn aedificabo 
Ecclesiam mearo, et porta? mferoruni non vincent earn." 

+ Ilia Ecclesia qua; fuit omnium gentium, jam non est, periit: hoc dicunt 
qui in ilia non sunt. O impudentem vocem ! Ilia non est, quia tu in ilia non 
es. Vide ne tu ideo non sis : nam ilia erit, etsi tu non sis. Hanc vocem abomi- 
nabilem, detestabilem, et praesumptionis et falsitatis plenam, nulla veritate 
suffultam, nulla sapientia illuminatam, nullo sale conditam, vanam, temerari- 
am, praecipitem, perniciosam, pvaevidit Spiritus Dei. Impletse sunt Scriptu- ' 
rae, crediderunt omnes gentes sed apostatavit et periit Ecclesia de omnibus 
gentibus. Quid est hoc, Exiguitatem dierum meorum annuntia mihi? Et 
annuntiavit , nee vacavit istavox. Quis annunciavit mini, nisi ipsa via.' Quo- 
aiodo annuntiavit? Ecce ego vobiscum sum v.sque ad consummatio?iem saeculi. 



14 

doctrine of our heavenly Master, which requires no long 
treatise or argument, but is brief on account of the sim- 
plicity of truth. The Lord says to Peter, thou art a rock, 
and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it : intimating that, from the 
evidence of this divine sentence alone, the infallibility and 
perpetuity of the church are clearly proved. In the pas- 
sage from St. Austin, the very position of the reformers is 
prophetically laid down, and the answer to it given by him, 
in nearly a similar manner to that of St. Cyprian. Those 
who are not in the church, says he, that is those, who have 
strayed from her fold, say that she has perished from all na- 
tions. But that the way, the truth, and the life, hath de- 
clared the contrary by saying, behold I am with you even 
to the consummation of ages. 

From all this I infer, Right Reverend Sir, that since the 
church is the spouse of Christ, she must be pure ; for he, 
being the essence of purity, can have no connexion with 
impurity ; that since this God of purity is to abide always 
with his church, she must continue pure, inasmuch as the 
origin of purity always must continue pure, and always must 
have the same dislike to any thing that differs from purity ; 
that since the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, is to abide al- 
ways with the church to guide her into all truth, it is im- 
possible that this church can deviate from that truth, which is 
here designated as the peculiar characteristic of that divine 
Spirit ; therefore to suppose or to admit, that the God of pu- 
rity and the Spirit of Truth, who is unchangeable, should con- 
sent to any change, (which he must necessarily do, if the 
church is to fall from that purity and truth, which are infused 
into her by the continual permanence with her of the God 
of purity and truth,) is the grossest blasphemy. We must 
either believe the Scriptures or reject them: there is no me- 
dium. If we believe them, we must take them as Almighty 
God has given them to us, or not at all ; for to act in any 
other way, is to make them a nose of wax, which I should 
suppose to be more criminal, than to reject them altogether. 
God has there declared, that the gates of hell shall never pre- 
vail against his church, and we must either believe that, in 
the most literal sense, in which the words can be taken, or 
we make the Scripture, not the unerring word of God, but 
the foolish fantasies of fallible and interested man. To sup- 
pose that, pure and holy as he is, he would be present with a 
sink of impurity and idolatry, as the church is represented to 
be, must be the very height of impiety. Yet he has declare 
ed that he will be with her all days, even to the consumma- 
tion of ages, and we must believe his word, or reject it alto* 



15 

wether. If we believe it, he is still with his church, and she- 
is pure and holy as he is, and of course infallible as he. — 
This is perfectly consonant with reason, and does not require 
infallibility to believe it, as has been insinuated by a certain 
nameless pamphleteer of your city. My dear Sir, I cannot 
help expressing my astonishment at the incredulity of such 
men as yourself to such irrefragable truths, as must come 
home to the bosom of every one, whom prejudice has not 
blinded, and a wrong education so biassed, as to prevent 
him from seeing the truth, however lucid it may shine upon 
him. 

In your 8th page, Right Reverend Srr, you quote St. Vincent 
of Lerins's rule for receiving or rejecting what has been be- 
lieved by the church. And, would to God, you would adhere 
to that rule, ft* if you did so, you would be more sparing of 
your ill-natured reflections and observations. " Quod sem- 
per, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus," says that venerable Saint, 
u id Apostolicum." What has been believed at all times, and in 
all places, and by all, is apostolical. Those articles of the Ca- 
tholic faith, which you treat so harshly, Right Reverend Sir, 
have undergone the test above quoted, and having been found 
agreeable to it, have been held as apostolical. If the subject 
were not of too serious a nature, we might justly smile at the 
idea of a Protestant prelate citing the words of St. Vincent of 
Lerins. That great man was, in every respect, a child of 'the 
Roman church. He employed his life in illustrating and defend- 
ing it. And the prelate who cites his words, must have placed 
little confidence in their propriety, when he imagines that 
the Catholic Vinceiit could have given a rule, which is con- 
stantly violated by those tenets which he spent his life in de- 
fending. He must have a contemptible idea of our doctors, 
when he thinks that they would establish a test which would 
prove their own condemnation. They must have been very 
artless, undesigning, and imprudent characters. If faith were to 
be changed by every man, or by any body of men, as they pleas- 
ed, then with equal propriety might they form a new scripture, 
or reject that which we receive. And as you advise your Pro- 
testant dissenting brethren, so / advise you, search diligently 
for the faith once delivered to the saints, and when you have 
found it, let no earthly advantages of wealth, or honour, or 
ease prevent you from embracing it. 

Your assertions in your 9th page, respecting the unlimited 
nnd the restricted right of private judgment, and the discrimi- 
nation which you make between them, are only shades of the 
same colour. For if we are allowed to form our faith as 
we please, (or, as you word it, " by depending frequently 
f>n the learning and information of others,") it matters but 



16 

little whether we make the scriptures or " the light, as far as 
it is disclosed to us, which has shone on the church universal," 
the guide of this proceeding. Our faith, thus formed, must be 
our own, not that of Jesus Christ, and the Catholic church, or 
else it must depend on church authority and tradition. But, 
Right Reverend Sir, if there were any ecclesiastical power in 
the United States, by that power, I think, you would be con- 
demned for approaching too near the vortex of Catholic infal- 
libility in this passage. It is thus, Right Reverend Sir, that 
so many jarring faiths have been spread abroad, and have 
distracted the world, and by this " right of private judgment," 
have the scriptures been made a tool by every ignorant or 
designing empiric in religion, from the days of your German 
apostle to the present day. Designate all the heresies that 
have been branded by the Catholic church from the days of 
the Apostles to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and 
you wili find them all alive at the present day, and acting in 
different forms in full vigour, being every one of them revived 
from the dead by that fell watch-word of the reformation " the 
right of private judgment." " God made man right, and he 
has entangled himself with an infinity of questions." Eccles. 
7. v. 30. God has commanded us to hear the church ; but in 
what are we to hear her ? How can we hear her, when we do 
all that we can to overturn her ? With humility and docility 
we must receive her dogmas, otherwise we act in diametrical 
opposition to the commands of our Lord and his spouse. 
" The church of the living God," says St. Paul, 1, Tim. 3, 15, 
"is the pillir and ground of truth." She is the support and 
foundation of truth, and if you take away this support and 
foundation, truth must inevitably fall to the ground. The 
church is not supported by truth, but truth by the church. 
* " That church alone is Catholic," says Lactantius, lib. 4. 
near the end, " which retains the true worship. This is the 
fountain of truth ; this is the habitation of faith ; this is the 
temple of God ; into which if any one enters not, or from 
which if any one departs, he is an alien from the hope of life, 
and eternal salvation. But although each sect of heretics 
considers itself Christian, and its church to be Catholic, yet 
they must know that that only is the true church, in which is 
confession and penance ; and which effectually cures the sins 
and wounds to which the weakness of the flesh is subject." 

* Sola igitur Catholica Ecclesia est, quae verum cultum retinet. Hie est' 
fons veritatis ; hoc est domicilium fidei ; hoc templum Dei : quod si quis non 
intraverit, vela quo si quis exiverit ; a spe vitas, ae salutis aeternae alienus est. 
Sed tamen, quia singuli quique coetus hcereticorum, se potissimum Christianos, 
et suam esse Catholicam Ecclesiam putant ; sciendum est illam esse verain, in 
qua est confessio, et poenitentia: quas peccata et vulnera, quibus subjecta est 
xmbecillitas carnis, salubriter curat. 



17 

Your denunciation) therefore, in your 1 1 th page, is perfectly 
just. Nothing ought to deter you from searching for the true 
church, and having found her, to embrace her. If you do 
not, your guilt will be great, and so much the greater, by how 
many you may have misled from the faith, and caused to tear 
Christ's seamless garment, defile his spotless spouse, and go 
asiray after their own imaginations. Take the lesson home, 
Right Reverend, and Dear Sir ; you have a soul to answer 
for, nay, you have a vast multitude of souls, for which you 
must account, and how will you be able at that dreadful day, 
to answer at the bar of God, if you shall neglect the precious 
opportunities, which Almighty God bestows upon you. Throw 
aside prejudice, passion, and every diabolical snare, and enter 
upon a candid, serious, and interested examination of the truth, 
and the God of truth will assuredly be found by you. The 
prejudices of education, and early habits are severe enemies 
in this examination, and while we permit them to rule, truth 
may come in view, and like a man afflicted with the jaundice, 
we shall not be able to discover her loveliness on account of 
the disease which pervades our system. 

" The church from which Protestants separated," you say 
in your 14th page, " claims, for its visible head, prerogatives as 
unfounded in scripture as they are dangerous in the exercise. 
And a little further, " what evidence is there that the church 
was not established on the other apostles, and that the power 
of the keys, or of remission of sins in the administration of the 
sacraments and ordinances, and of discipline, was not confer- 
red on them ?" And so on to the end of the paragraph. In 
this and your succeeding paragraph, you endeavour to throw 
off the supremacy o?the visible head of Christ's church, and I 
shall beg leave to say a few words upon that subject, as it is a 
matter, I believe, but little understood, and less attended to 
than it ought to be, among the members of the Protestant 
Episcopal church. 

First, in St. John's gospel, chap. 1, v. 42. our Lord says, 
rt Thou art Simon, the son of Jona : thou shalt be called Ce- 
phas, which is, by interpretation, Peter, (a rock.)" Again, in 
St. Matthew, chap. 16, v. 18, Jesus Christ says, " Thou art 
Peter, (a rock) and upon this rock (or Peter) will I build my 
Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." — 
Taking these texts in connexion, as you will no doubt admit, 
the latter text would run thus, according to the interpretation 
*>f our blessed Lord himself. " Blessed art thou Simon Bar- 
jona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but 
my Father who is in heaven. And I say unto thee, that thou 
art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." From this text it is 

3 



18 

plainly evident, that St. Peter, in his person, was the rock, 
upon which our blessed Lord chose to found his church, arid 
the words that immediately follow, not only confirm the pre- 
ceding, but evidently give St. Peter a superiority, which was 
given to none of the other apostles, nor to them all collec- 
tively ; and I will give unto thee, Peter '," and to no other,." the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Here there 
is an evident distinction made between what he says to St. 
Peter, and what he says, after his resurrection, to the other 
apostles in common, St. Matt. 28, v. 18, " whatsoever ye shall 
bind, &c." not only inasmuch as he speaks in the first passage 
to St. Peter individually, and alone, but in that he gives him 
two distinct commissions. First, he gives him the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven, that is, supreme authority in his church, 
by which he is to possess authority and supremacy, as well 
over the bishops and pastors of the church, as over its other 
members. That power which our blessed Lord himself has. 
he confers on him, and on none of.the other apostles, for " he 
has the key of the house of David ; he openeth and no man 
shutteth ; and shutteth and no man openeth." Apocal. 3, v. 7. 
And secondly, to him singularly he gives the power of binding 
and loosing. His other apostles were present at the time of 
his giving this commission to St. Peter, yet he does not give 
them the same charge, which plainly shows, that he intended 
him to have the supreme authority over them, as well as the 
rest of his disciples. In giving his apostles their commission, 
he gives them generally the power of binding and loosing, but 
he gives the keys, the emblem of supreme authority, only to 
St. Peter. Jesus Christ gave him a new name, significative 
of his office ; he calls him Peter, a rock, the foundation of his 
church ; and He, who is supreme ruler of the universe, gives 
him supreme power, by conferring on him the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven. " He who is faithful and true, who has the key 
of David, and openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and 
no man openeth," confers on him alone the same power, and 
that too, in presence of his other apostles, to whom he gives 
no such power. 

And lest this should be in any manner misunderstood, in 
his' last charge to his apostles, after his resurrection, he gives 
the power of loosing and binding to all his apostles, among 
whom was St. Peter ; but he does not give to them the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven. He had already given them to. St. 
Peter, and by his giving him along with them, a confirmation 
of that supremacy, which he had formerly bestowed upon him 
in their presence, he only proves that supremacy the more 



19 

strongly. " He is not a man that he should repent," nor can 
we without blasphemy suppose, that, without mentioning it, he 
would retract, what he had solemnly given. In the presence 
of them all he had conferred on St. Peter the keys, the em- 
blem of supreme power, and now he confers on them a com- 
mission, but still subject to that supremacy, which he had pre- 
viously confirmed to their chief. And to confirm this supre- 
macy still further, he says to St. Peter, in the presence of the 
other .apostles, at his third appearance to his disciples, after 
his resurrection ; " Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou me more 
than these? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest 
that I love thee. Pie saith unto him, Feed my Lambs, He 
saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jona, 
lovest thou me ? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest 
that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my sheep. He 
saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou 
me ? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third 
time, lovest thou me ? And he said unto him. Lord, thou 
knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus 
saith unto him, feed my sheep." St. John, 21, v. 15, 16, 17, 
Than this, there can be no plainer proof of the supremacy 
and principality, which our Lord had formerly conferred on 
St. Peter. In the first place he asks him, if he loved him more 
than all the rest did, and what is the natural deduction from 
this question, but that, as he was to confer upon him an honour 
superior to them, he must love him more than they ? He asked 
no question respecting their love of. him from the other apostles, 
but from St. Peter alone, and as soon a& he had given him 
the answer, " yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee," our 
blessed Lord immediately gives hinrcharge of feeding his lambs, 
and afterwards his sheep. The word translated " feed," im- 
plies authority, such as a shepherd has over his flock, as well 
as supplying them with food, as may be easily learned from its 
use among profane authors, who call absolute kings the "shep- 
herds of the people." And the word sheep, implies all the 
flock, not only the lambs, begotten into the fold, but also the 
fathers, who have begotten these lambs into the fold, the 
church of Christ ; so that all, who belong to the fold of Christ, 
(and surely the bishops and pastors of the church belong to 
that fold,) arc placed by Jesus Christ under the supreme au- 
thority of St. Peter. If St. Peter possessed no supremacy, I 
blush for the inconsistency of the scripture, the only rule of 
Protestant faith. " Dost thou love me more than these, Peter ? 
yes, Lord ; then thou shalt feed my lambs and my sheep, but 
this shall give no other power than that which the other apostles 
possess. Because thou lovest me more than the other apos- 
tles, thou shalt be rewarded: but the reward of thy superior 



2(> 

love, shall be exactly equal to that which their inferior love 
merits. Govern my lambs and my sheep, that is, all my flock ; 
but thy fellow apostles, who are part of my flock, and there- 
fore to be governed by thee, must enjoy the same dignity, 
why ? because they love me less than thou dost." Ah, Cory- 
don, Corydon — this must be the explanation of a Protestant 
divine. 

To an unprejudiced mind, Right Reverend Sir, these texts 
are positive proofs of the supremacy of St. Peter, and his 
successors over the other Apostles, and all the arts, which 
cunning and designing men have used to evade their 
force, only more fully display that perversion of the hu- 
man mind superinduced by the fall of man. And here to 
meet another of your observations, p. 15th — " Where is the 
proof that it descended to the bishop of Rome!" Our bles- 
sed Lord, when he had given his last charge to his Apostles, 
declared, " and lo, 1 am with you alway to the consummation 
of ages," St. Matt, xxviii. v. 20. And if you, Sir, can sur- 
mount this, your own. Episcopal office must fall to the ground. 
Besides, our blessed Lord, as recorded St. Luke, xxii. v. 
31, 32, says; Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have 
you, that he may sift you as wheat ; but I have prayed for 
thee, that thy faith fail not, and thou, being once converted, 
confirm thy brethren." Here you will allow that some dis- 
tinction is made by our blessed Lord, between St. Peter 
and the rest of the Apostles. But St. Irenaeus's reproach 
comes in here with full force, " when they are accused from 
the Scriptures, they begin to accuse the very Scriptures them- 
selves." St. Iren. 1. 3, cap. 2.* 

Tertullian in his book de Prasscript. cap. 22, says ; " was 
any thing concealed from Peter, who was called the rock of 
the foundation of the church ; who obtained the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven, and the power of binding and loosing in 
heaven and earth ?"f 

Origen, on the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
writes ; " when the chief power of feeding the sheep was 
delivered to Peter, and the church was founded upon him 
as upon a rock, the confession of no other virtue but chari- 
ty is demanded of him," And in his 5th homily upon Exo- 
dus, he says ; " hear what is said to the great foundation 

* Cum enim ex Scripturis arguunturj in accusationem conveituntur ipsarum 
scripturarum. 

t Latuit aliquid Petrum, eedificandae Ecclesiae petram dictum : claves regoi 
»?.oelorum consecutum, et solvendi et alligandi in coelis et in terris potestatem ? 



21 

*>f the church, and to the solid rock, upon which Christ built 
his church ; O man of little faith, why hast thou doubted ?"* 

St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who/n no one will accuse 
of obsequiousness to the Pope, says in his book de Unitate 
Ecclesiae ; '" upon him (Peter) alone he builds his church. 
And although he gives a like power to all his Apostles, and 
says ; as my Father hath sent me, &c. yet that he might mani- 
fest unity, by his authority, he placed the original of this same 
unity, beginning from one, Peter." And in his 43d Epistle, 
addressed to the whole people, he says ; " there is one God, 
and one Christ, and one church, and one chair founded upon 
Peter by the word of the Lord." In his 59th Epistle, to Cor- 
nelius, he has these words ; "after these things, the heretics, 
having appointed for themselves a false bishop, still further 
dare to cross the sea ; and to bring letters from the schisma- 
tics and prophane, to the chair of St. Peter, and the principal 
church, from which the unity of priesthood has arisen." In 
his 71st Epistle, and in his book De Bono Patientias, he 
says ; " Peter, whom our Lord chose the first and on whom 
he built his church." And in his book de Disciplina et Ha- 
bitu Virginum, he writes thus; " Peter, to whom our Lord 
recommends the care of his sheep, and upon whom, he built 
and founded his church."! 

Eusebius in his ecclesiastical history, b. 2, cap. 14, calls 
Peter " the bravest and greatest among the Apostles, and by 
the merit of his virtue the Prince and Patron of all the rest." 
St. Jerome, in his commentary on the 16th chapter of St. 
Matthew, says ; " to Simon, who believed in Christ, the rock, 
he gave the name. of Peter, and according to the metaphor 
of the rock, it is properly said to him, on thee I will build my 
church." St. Augustine on Psalm 69th, sect. 4th, says, " Pe- 
ter, the chief of the Apostles, door-keeper of heaven ; Peter, 
who for his confession was named the rock, on whom the 
church was to be built." 

* Petro cum summa rerum de pascendis ovibus traderetur, et super ipsum 
velut super petram fundaretur Ecclesia, nulhus confessio virtutis alterius ab 
eo, nisi caritatis exigitur. 

Vide magno illi Ecclesiae fundamento, et petrae solidissimae, super quant 
Christus fundavit Ecclesiam, quid dicatur a Domino : Modicas fidei, quare du- 
bitasti ? 

+ Super unum aedificat Ecclesiam suam. ' Et quamvis Apostolis omnibus, par- 
cm potestatem tribuat et dicat: sicut misit me Pater, &c. tamen ut unitatem 
manifestaret, uniUitis ejusdem originem ab uno Petro incipientem sua auctori- 

tate disposuit. Deusunusest, et Christus unus, et una Ecclesia, et cathedra, 

una super Petrum Domini vocefundata — Post ista adhuc insuper pseudo-epis- 
copo sibi ab haereticis constituto, navigare audent ; et ad Petri Cathedram, at- 
que ad Ecclesiam principalem, unde unitae sacerdotalis exoita est, a schisma- 
ibus et profanis literas ferre. — &c. 



22 

In opposition to your observation, p. 15th, "are we not 
struck with the remarkable fact so subversive of the alleged 
supremacy of St. Peter, that in the first council that settled 
the disputes of the infant church, St. James, bishop of Jeru- 
salem, even in the presence of St. Peter, enjoyed that prece- 
dence, and exercised that power, which are claimed as of 
divine origin for him ?" Now, Right Reverend Sir, the re- 
markable fact rests not on a solid foundation, as I hope to 
make presently appear. Whilst St. Paul, and St. Barnabas 
were at Antioch, some came from Judaea, and taught the 
brethren, that in order to be saved they must be circumcis- 
ed after the manner of Moses. After much contest, it was 
determined that Paul and Barnabas, and others of the op- 
posite opinion, should go to the Apostles and priests at Je- 
rusalem, to obtain a decision of the question. After their 
arrival at Jerusalem, some of the believing Pharisees arose 
and said, that they must be circumcised ; and be command- 
ed to observe the law of Moses. This question was of great 
importance, and therefore the Apostles and Ancients assem- 
bled to consider the matter. After there had been much dis- 
pute, we are told; " Peter, rising up, said to them: Men, 
brethren, you know that in former days God made choice, 
among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the 
word of the Gospel, and believe, &c. And all the multitude 
held their peace." Here we are told that there was much 
disputing upon the subject, and after the disputations, St. 
Peter rose up to pass definitive sentence, in proof of which, 
the whole multitude were silent. His definitve sentence si- 
lenced all disputations, for we hear of none after it. St, 
James as being bishop of Jerusalem, next gave his opinion, 
in no way disagreeing from that of St. Peter, and doubtless the 
other Apostles also gave their opinion in a similar manner. — 
The very first sentence that St. Peter utters, is proof of 
his supremacy. He declares it as a thing well known to the 
whole multitude, that God had made choice of him to be the 
Apostle of the Gentiles, and that they should believe through 
his word, and St. Paul, Gal. 2. v. 7, 8, declares, that the 
Apostleship of the circumcision was committed to St. Peter. 
Therefore it is evident, that having the Apostleship of the 
circumcision, and of the uncircumcision, or Gentiles, he had 
a supremacy over all. For although St. Paul was especially 
set apart by the Holy Ghost for the instruction of the Gen- 
tiles, yet God had previously appointed St. Peter to this 
service, thereby plainly intimating that nothing should be ex- 
cepted from the jurisdiction and authority of St. Peter. The 
Prince of the Apostles then goes on to expound the doctrine 
concerning the exemption of the new converts from the ob- 



S3 

servance of the Mosaic ceremonies, after which he repre- 
hends the multitude, and observe with how great authority, 
"why tempt you God, to put a yoke upon the necks of the 
disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to 
bear V s Then he pronounces his definitire sentence ; " but 
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be saved, 
in like manner as they also." How briefly, how simply, and 
how precisely he speaks ! Here we do not find him, as a 
private member furnishing arguments to be afterwards de- 
cided by the council, but determining the controversy, silen- 
cing opposition, and first pronouncing sentence. 

What do the multitude of opponents say to the words of St. 
Peter? They are all silent, no one dares to contradict him, 
they feel his supreme authority, and those who pertinaciously 
held the contrary opinion, and were vociferous in its defence, 
compelled by reverence and obedience, hold their peace. St. 
Jerome in Epist. ad August, says, "all the multitude was silent; 
and James, and along with him all the priests agreed to the 
sentence of Peter*" After St. Peter had given his definitive 
sentence, Paul and Barnabas, by relating the miracles, which 
God, by their means had wrought among the gentiles, confirm 
his judgment. Then St. James, when about to give his opinion, 
expressly begins with St. Peter's words ; u Men, brethren, 
Simon hath related," &c. and goes on to explain the sense of 
the scriptures on the question, then in giving his judgment, he 
subscribes to St. Peter's sentence ; " For which cause I judge 
that they, who from among the gentiles are converted to God, 
are not to be disquieted." As to the words, " I judge," used 
by St. James, and made such a handle of by you, as to estab- 
lish your remarkable fact, they imply no superiority, nor any 
delivery of a definitive sentence, but merely an acquiescence 
in the definitive sentence already pronounced by St. Peter, as 
may be easily understood from his silence as well as that of 
the rest, when that sentence was delivered. But even admit- 
ting it to have all the force that you can give it, the whole 
will only be a negative argument, and of course cannot coun- 
teract positive proof, such as is given for the supremacy of 
St. Peter. 

. Your following section, in page 15th, contains a number of 
questions, and assertions arising out of them, some of which 
have been already sufficiently treated above in reference to 
the sacred scripture, and the holy fathers of the first ages. 
Among others, 1 find the following : " where the warrant for 
the lofty titles, involving equally lofty prerogatives, assumed 
by the papal pontiff, of Vicar of Jesus Christ, and universal 
bishop ? Of those lofty titles and these lofty prerogatives, we, 
have no record set forth in the apostolic history recorded in 



m 

the Acts,''' &c, Now, Right Reverend Sir, I shall endeavour 
to meet your wishes, (however loftily expressed,) inas brief a 
manner as possible, as I have hitherto most studiously attempt^ 
ed. Jesus Christ promised to send the Holy Ghost, the Para- 
clete, to be the guide of his church into all truth. Both you and 
I believe this Paraclete to be God, as well as is the God-man 
Jesus Christ. Therefore this Paraclete could not be the 
Vicar of Jesus Christ, for he is equal to him in every respect, 
God cannot be his own Vicar. Besides, sir, the church is a 
" Visible body," (as you very justly remark, p. 24th,) and as 
such, must have a visible head. The Holy. Ghost, the Para- 
clete, is invisible, andtherefore cannot be the head of a visible 
church ; I conclude, then, that the Paraclete is not the vicari- 
ous head of this visible body ; and I have before proved that 
he cannot be the vicar of Jesus Christ in another sense. 
Jesus Christ himself is the head of his church, but Jesus 
Christ is now invisible, therefore he cannot be the head of a, 
visible body ; His church is a visible body, and, therefore, to 
be complete, it must have a visible head. Where is this head 
to be found ? In the person of the pope of Rome, already 
amply proved to have been appointed by Jesus Christ as su- 
preme head of his church, as having a power superior to the 
rest of the apostles, as having to feed Christ's sheep, as well 
as his lambs, and therefore supremely governing the former 
as well as the latter. You will say, that the bishops are the 
visible heads, each of his respective church. Here we agree. 
The bishops are the heads of their respective portions of the 
church of Christ, each in subordination to the jurisdisction 
of the pope ; but is Christ many ? No, he is one. The whole 
church is his body. He himself is the head of the whole 
church, visible and invisible, but as he himself is now invisible, 
his church visible must have a visible head, one, not many ; 
and surely no bishop, except the bishop of Rome, after what 
has been already proved, can claim the title of visible head of 
the universal visible church. The bishop of Rome, therefore, 
whom we call Pope, is the visible head of the Catholic church 
of Christ, and, as such, is the vicar of Jesus Christ upon, 
earth. 

In this sense, therefore, the pope of Rome is " universal 
bishop," or bishop of the universal church of Jesus Christ on 
earth. Your observation that it was conferred upon him by 
the " corrupt hand of secular power," has been abundantly 
proved incorrect, and therefore, I need not travel over the 
same ground. One observation, however, I beg leave to 
make, and it is, that the reproach, which you throw upon the 
Roman Catholic church in your 16th page, is no more than 
what has been often said before, and, of course, is founded 



25 

upon the secular argument fabricated by the royal divines of 
the temporal theological church of England. They were ap- 
pointed, and (if consecrated they were,) consecrated by power 
emanating from the king, and, of course, whatever did not 
proceed from the king, was in their eyes uncanonical. Hold- 
ing this doctrine, therefore, we cannot wonder, that they 
should broach the opinion, which rests on their foundation 
alone, that the supremacy of the pope emanated from the em- 
peror of Rome, and therefore they have constantly held the 
same out to their people, that the pope was emboldened, as 
being the bishop of the imperial city, and under the special 
protection of the Roman emperor, to assume this title. But, 
Sir, from what has been said before, and the consideration, 
that all ecclesiastical power comes only from God, you must 
be convinced that the reproach is unfounded, and therefore 
unjust. 

As to the reproach thrown by St. Gregory the Great, upon 
John, Patriarch of Constantinople, for assuming the title of 
(Ecumenical bishop, it is well founded upon three points. 
First, he had no right to this title, founded upon divine, or 
apostolical authority ; secondly, he seemed to assume it to 
the exclusion of all other bishops ; and, thirdly, the pride and 
arrogance of the Greeks were such, as to cause the holy pon- 
tiff to tremble for the dreadful consequences that might ensue, 
were such an assumption tamely submitted to by the head of 
the visible church. These things being considered, and the 
Roman pontiff never having claimed the title of " universal 
bishop," although the authority and jurisdiction had been con- 
ferred by Jesus Christ himself, and had been frequently exer- 
cised, and was well known and acknowledged, not only by 
single bishops, but by several general councils, and, in short, 
by the whole church, yet St. Gregory the Great, lib. 7, epist. 
62. says ; " If there be any crime found in bishops, I know no 
bishop but is subject to the See Apostolic." And in lib. 4, 
indie. 13, ep. 32. '* The care and principality of the church 
hath been committed to the holy apostle, and prince of the 
apostles, St. Peter, yet is he not called universal apostle, as 
if there were no other apostle but himself." From this we 
may easily learn the sense in which that holy pontiff under- 
stood the title of " universal bishop," which the patriarch of 
Constantinople at that time arrogated to himself; and of 
course your reproach, in the end of your paragraph, cannot 
.take effect. 

Besides, if we examine the annals of those times, in which 
you say that the supremacy of the bishop of Rome was not 
spoken of, we shall rind Pope Victor, Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. 
5, cap. 24, 25, who lived in the second century, exercising 

4 



26 

all the power, with which his supremacy, derived from St. 
Peter, endowed him, not in matters of faith only, but in 
matters of discipline. Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history,, 
lib. 4, cap. 13, tells us, that St. Polycarp, appointed bishop 
of Smyrna by the Holy Apostle St. John, came to Rome, to 
confer with Pope Anicetus, concerning the day of Easter. — 
Now it may be here observed, why did St. PoJycarp come to 
Rome, a distant, and at that time dangerous voyage, to con- 
sult with Anicetus, the eleventh from the Apostles, if there 
were not something of superiority in the latter, of which the 
former was conscious ? This, Sir, maylbe sufficient to prove, 
that the church in the second century acknowledged the su- 
premacy of the Roman See, and that the bishop of Rome ex- 
ercised that supremacy ; and in further testimony, we have St. 
lreneeus. 

As to our having " no record set forth in the Apostolic his- 
tory recorded in the Acts," I am, in some manner at a loss to 
Understand your meaning. You well know, Right Reverend 
Sir, that the book entitled " the Acts of the Apostles," is rather 
a summary of the travels and actions of St. Paul, than an 
" apostolic history." St. Luke, the author of that book, was 
particularly attached to St. Paul, and we are not to wonder, 
that he is the main subject of that history. Yet from what 
we have proved a little before, and some other instances, 
we have abundant proof, even in the Acts of the Apostles, 
of the supremacy of St. Peter, over the rest of the Apostles ; 
nor are we to expect that those, who had so recently been 
rebuked by their Lord and Master for claiming superiority, 
would be inclined to renew the contest, after the unequivo- 
cal testimony, which he had given of his committing the su- 
preme jurisdiction of his flock to St. Peter. In the first 
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we are told, that " St. 
Peter, rising up in the midst of the brethren, said ; one of 
these must be made a witness with us of his resurrection." — 
St. Peter, here, like a faithful guardian of his trust, orders 
an election of an Apostle in the room of Judas the traitor.— 
He directs the mode of election, and expounds the suggestion 
of God, and the Scripture of the old testament, for his doing 
so, and plainly proves his supremacy, by the contexture of 
the whole business. In the second chapter of the same 
book, we are informed, that, after the descent of the Holy 
Ghost, St. Peter made the first sermon, by which he con- 
verted three thousand. The beginning of his discourse 
speaks superiority, without claiming it in words, for he stood 
up with the eleven, and having lifted up his voice said ; u ye 
men of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this 
known to you, and with your ears receive my words. For 



27 

these are not drunk as you suppose, seeing it is but the third 
hour of the day." Here we find the Holy Apostle, like a 
true shepherd, standing up in defence of his iloek, against 
the malicious attacks of those, who would have it believed 
that the Aposties were drunk. His office of supreme pastor 
of his master's flock gave him, and him alone, the title to de- 
fend them from the rude assaults of the wolves and foxes of 
this world, and he boldly executes his office. After having 
produced by his sermon such compunction in his hea 
that " They said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles ; what 
shall we do men and brethren ? Peter said to them, do pen- 
ance and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of your sins." Here were all the* 
Apostles ; St. Peter takes the lead, and defends his brother 
Apostles, and when he had compelled the multitude by com- 
punction, to ask of him and the other Apostles what they 
should do, he alone answers them, he alone directs them. 
We find no mention made of any of the other Aposties saying 
any thing to the multitude, save St. Peter alone. They all 
stand up with him, as a proof of their assent to the doctrine, 
whicli he should deliver, and of their perfect accordance with 
their chief, but not one of them addresses a word to the mul- 
titude, not even when asked. In the third chapter, we are 
told, that Peter and John went up to the temple to pray, and 
that a certain man, who was lame from his mother's womb, 
asked an alms of them, to whom Peter said, u Silver and gold 
I have none ; but that which I have I give thee : in the name 
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk." Here al- 
though St. Peter ordered the lame man, " look on us" yet to 
show his superiority, he makes his declaration in the singular 
number, and not in the name of both. " Silver and gold / 
have none ; but that which /have / give thee." And when 
they were dragged before the council for teaching in the 
temple, St. Peter alone spoke, St. John said nothing. In 
the case of Ananias andSapphira, St. Peter acts authoritative* 
ly, and passes sentence of excommunication against them, which 
was followed by their sudden death. In an authoritative 
manner also he excommunicates Simon, the magician, in the 
presence of St. John, In ail these instances, Sir, when at- 
tentively considered, the supremacy of St. Peter is fully re- 
corded and set forth. For we can account in no other way, 
for his being chief speaker, and at the same time with such 
authority, but in consequence of that superiority conferred 
upon him by Jesus Christ. 

You say also, that " Clement bishop of Rome, next but one 
in succession to that see from the Apostles, in his celebrated 
epistle, advances no such claims. The venerable martyr Ig,- 



28 

ttatius, the disciple of St. John, delineating with the greatest 
minuteness the Christian hierarchy, and enforcing the duty 
of submission to it, utters not a word of the supremacy of 
the bishop of Rome." I can discover, Right Reverend Sir, 
no argument in this, against the supremacy of the bishop of 
Rome. It is not necessary that St. Clement, because he 
was bishop, and successor of St. Peter, should particularly 
tell the faithful to whom he wrote, that he was endowed with 
the supremacy of the Christian church, they all knew and 
acknowledged it. For the same reason, St. Ignatius makes 
no mention of it, but he does one thing, which appears to 
militate a little against your position, for he calls Anacletus, 
the bishop of Rome, " Pope," an appellation, which he does 
not make use of, in all his epistles, to any other bishop. St. 
Ignat, Epist. ad Mariam, prope ab initio. 

In your 1 7th page, you ask " Is his (the Saviour's) atone- 
ment diminished in its' redeeming efficacy, because Papal 
superstition connects with it the intercession and merits of 
created beings?" Here, Right Reverend Sir, you labour 
under a mistake. The Catholic church connects no interces- 
sion or merits, with the intercession and merits of Jesus 
Christ. And as this subject is but little, if at all, understood 
by Protestants, and has been much abused, I shall beg leave 
to state it, as briefly as possible, that they may see how 
unreasonably the church is accused in the matter. 

The veneration and invocation of Angels and Saints have 
a rational and Scriptural foundation, and the support of the 
Holy Fathers, without being at all derogatory from the ho- 
nour due to God. For when Catholics kneel and pray to An- 
gels or Saints, it is only done as to God's eminent servants, 
and for his sake ; when they kneel and pray to God, it is 
done as to their Lord, God, Creator, and Redeemer, and for 
his sake only they pray to Angels or Saints to assist them, 
by and through the merits of Christ ; without which Catho- 
lics know that the Angels and Saints are and can do nothing. 
When they pray to Christ to assist them, they do so by and 
through his own merits only, so that there is no more dan- 
der of robbing God of his honour, by reverencing his Angels 
and Saints, than there is danger of robbing a king of his hon- 
our, by reverencing his peers and nobles, according to their 
several ranks and dignities. Roman Catholics believe, that, 
as the prophets of old by the special light of grace were 
able to know things done at a great distance, much more can 
the blessed Angels and Saints in heaven, having a greater 
and more special light of grace, know things done at a great 
distance ; witness the prophet Eliseus in the 4th book of 
kings (2d book in the protestant bible) chap. 6th, and St. P^- 



29 

ter in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. Add to this, the 
various predictions of future events, which accordingly hap- 
pened. Even the reprobates in hell know what passes in 
this world. Witness the rich glutton, St. Luke 16, who 
knew that his brethren were following his example, and re- 
quested Abraham for permission to send Lazarus and warn 
them of their danger. The blessed Angels in heaven can- 
not, therefore, be denied to have an equal power with the 
reprobate in hell, seeing they have the light of grace and 
glory superadded to the light of nature. And, moreover, the 
blessed Angels and Saints in heaven see and know God with 
all his attributes and perfections. u For now we see through 
a glass in a dark manner ; but then face to face ; now I know in 
part ; but then shall I know, even as I am known." 1 Cor. 13, 
v. 12. They therefore cannot but see us with all our actions, 
since they see God, who is far more invisible and inscrutable 
than we and all his creatures put together, a for in him we 
live, and move, and have our being," besides, " there shall 
be joy in heaven when a sinner does penance," St. Luke, 15, 
v. 10. How can they rejoice, unless they know even our in- 
terior thoughts ? For penance requires interior dispositions. 
But further. 

The blessed Angels and Saints are by God's appointment 
our guardians and governors, and know our affairs and pray 
for us ; it must, therefore, be good and profitable for us to 
venerate, invocate, and pray to them ; for we are taught by 
the light of nature to look up, with respect, to our earthly 
guardians for assistance.. God has appointed the Saints to 
govern us, u And he that shall overcome and keep my works 
unto the end, I will give power over the nations, and he 
shall rule them with a rod of iron." Apocal. 2, v. 26, 27. — 
" And hath made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and 
we shall reign on the earth." Apocal. 5, v. 10. The Saints 
know our necessities and our aflairs ; " So I say to you, there 
shall be joy before the Angels of God upon one sinner doing 
penance." St. Luke, 15, v. 10. " See that thou despise not 
one of these little ones ; for 1 say to you, that their Angels 
in heaven always do see the face of my Father who is in hea- 
ven." St. Matt. 18, v. 10. As the Angels know our affairs 
and pray for us, so do the Saints, for there can be no reason 
why the Angels can and the Saints cannot ; nor was it ever 
maintained. " For they are equal to the Angels ; and are 
the children of God, being the children of the resurrection*" 
St. Luke, 20, v. 36. " When thou didst pray with tears, and 
didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy dinner, and hide the 
dead by day in thy house, and bury them by night, I offered 
thy prayer to the Lord." Tobias, 12, v. 12. The Angels 
and Saints do actually pray for us ; " And the Angel of the 



30 

-Ijord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thofc 
not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Juda, with 
which thou hast been angry ? this is the seventieth year." — 
Zaeh. i. 12. "The four and twenty ancients fell down before 
the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials^ 
full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. "■ — Apocal. v, 8* 
As the chosen friends of God are recorded in scripture to 
have honoured and invocated the saints, it must be also good 
and profitable for us to follow their example. " No : but lam 
prince of the host of the Lord, and now I am come. Josue 
fell on his face to the ground, i^nd worshipping, said," Jo- 
sue v. 14, 15. "And Lot, seeing the angels, rose up and went 
to meet them, and worshipped prosuate to the ground." — 
Gen, xix. 1 . St. John fell down, to adore before the feet of 
the angel, which he would not have done, if he had considered 
it to be idolatry. — Apoc. xxn. 8. " The angel that dehver- 
eth me from all evils, bless these boys : and let my name be 
called upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and 
Isaac."— -Gen. xlviii. 16. "And he prevailed over the an- 
gel, and was strengthened ; he wept, and made supplication 
to him." — Osee xii. 4. Grace be unto you and peace from 
him that is, and that was, and that is to come, and from the, 
seven spirits which are before his throne." — Apocal. i. 4. 

If we believe " the holy Catholic Church, the communion 
of saints," we shall then discover the propriety of invocating 
and praying to the saints ; for otherwise there can be no 
meaning attached to the Article, In every Protestant church, 
the sick apply for the prayers of the congregation ; or those 
who have obtained any mercy, desire their assistance in re- 
turning thanks. What is the reason of this ? It is, that being 
considered, (according to the doctrine of Protestants as well 
as Catholics,) as members of Christ's body, " if one member 
suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it. Or. if one 
member glory, all the members rejoice with it.": — 1 Cor. xii, 
26. Catholics, in all ages, have considered the faithful on 
earth, as members of the same mystical body of Christ, with 
the blessed saints in heaven. If therefore, it is lawful to sup- 
plicate the prayers and intercessions of sinners upon earth, 
how much more so must it be lawful, to supplicate the suffrages 
of the blessed saints in heaven, who must, as members of the 
same mystical body, have a fellow feeling with their fellow 
members ? This, I conceive to be perfectly conclusive. St, 
Paul says, 1 Cor. xiii. 8, " Charity never falleth away."— 
Though faith and hope cease in heaven, being inconsistent 
with the state of bliss, yet charity remains, and without doubt, 
is increased in heaven. If charity even in this world, obliges 
$s to be solicitous, and pray for one another's salvation, surelv 



31 



the angels and saints in heaven, whose charity far surpasses 
ours, cannot fail of performing their part, in sending up pray- 
ers to the throne of grace, for those who are yet engaged in the 
warfare of this mortal life, and uncertain of their future state. 
Mr. Thorndike, an eminent protestant writer, in his " Just 
Weights and Measures," has the following words : "All mem- 
bers of the church triumphant in heaven, according to their 
degrees of favour with God, abound also with love to his 
church militant on earth. Therefore it is certain, both that 
they offer continual prayers to God, for its necessities, and that 
their prayers must be of great force and effect with God, for 
the assistance of the church militant, in this warfare ; which, 
if it be true, the communion of saints will necessarily require, 
first, that all, &c, secondly, That the living beg of God a part 
and interest in their prayers, which they, who are so near to God 
in his kingdom, tender to him without ceasing, for the church 
upon earth." He further observes, in Epil. part third, page 
358, " It is confessed that the great lights, both of the Greek 
and Latin church, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gre- 
' gory Nvssen, St. Ambrose, St.- Jerome, St. Augustine, St. 
Chrvsostom, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, 
Theodoret, St. Fulgentius, St. Gregory the great, St. Leo, 
more, or rather all, after that time, have spoken to the saints, 
and desired their assistance." 

Bishop Forbes, of Aberdeen, in page 311, says, in general 
terms, " It has been a practice for many ages, in the whole 
thurch, in the east as. much as in the west, and even in the 
north, amona; the Muscovites, ( the church of Russia,) to sing 
this litany, for example, St, Peter pray for us." The Bishop 
of Oxford, in his edition of St. Cyprian, says, "We do not 
doubt but the souls in heaven pray earnestly to God, that he 
may show his mercy to those that live here." Bishop Monta- 
gue, in his treatise of invocation of saints, page 97, says, 
u I see no absurdity in nature, nor incongruity unto the ana- 
logy of faith ; no repugnance at all to sacred scripture, much 
less impiety, for any man to say, Holy angel guardian pray for 
us." Again, in his Antidote, page 10, he says, " I do not de- 
ny but the saints are mediators ( as they are called ) of prayer 
and intercession. — 'They interpose with God, by their suppli- 
cations, and mediate by their prayers." And again, in his 
treatise of invocation, page 118. — "I grant Christ is not 
wronged in his mediation. It is no impiety to say as they do, 
holy Mary, pray for us, — holy Peter, pray for me." The 
Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Book of Common Prayer, 
hopes for succour and defence, through the angels, (and surely 
as much may be said of the saints,) see the collect for the feast 
of St. Michael, and all Angels, — " 0, everlasting God, wh» 



32 

hast ordained and constituted the services of angels and men 
in a wonderful order ; mercifully grant, that as thy holy an- 
gels always do thee service in heaven; so, by thy appoint- 
ment, they may succour and defend us on earth, through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord, Amen." St. Paul, in his epistle to the Ro- 
mans, xv. 30, applies to the Roman converts thus : — " I be- 
seech you, therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and by the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you help me in 
your prayers for me to God." At this tim«, St. Paul evidently 
makes them mediators of intercession, and surely he had no 
idea of derogating from the honour of the one mediator be- 
tween God and man, by so doing. In his epistle to the Gala- 
tians, hi. 19, he teaches us " that the law was ordained by an- 
gels in the hand of a mediator," who, Theodoret says, was 
Moses. And Moses said thus of himself, Deut. v. 5, " I was 
the mediator, and stood between the Lord and you at that 
time." In this sense, the Lutheran Profession of Wittemjberg 
says, Tit. de ordine, " If we mean a mediator of prayer, every 
good man is another's mediator, through Jesus Christ : be- 
cause it is every man's duty to recommend the salvation of 
others, by prayers to God." This is the Catholic doctrine, 
clearly explained. Thus the apostles and the other scripture, 
together with some protestant divines of no mean note, join- 
ing issue, completely defend and establish the doctrine of the 
Catholic church, respecting the invocation of angels and saints, 
which you so strongly impugn. If this be superstition, as you, 
have termed it, I had rather be superstitious with the holy 
Patriarchs, Prophets, Martyrs, and Confessors, as my guides 
and companions, than be wise with those who oppose them. 

In your next question, you ask, " Does the institution of 
public worship lose its obligation, because in the church of 
Rome its spirituality is obscured by the pageantry of supersti- 
tious ceremonies ?" The only observation which I shall make 
upon this illiberal remark, I shall extract from the preface of 
the book of Common Prayer, and one of the articles published 
under your own immediate authority. " In every church, what 
cannot be clearly determined to belong to doctrine, must be 
referred to discipline ; and therefore, by common consent and 
authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or 
otherwise disposed of, as may seem most convenient for the 
edification of the people, according to the various exigencies 
of times and occasions." Article 20th, says, " The church 
hath power to decree rites or ceremonies." Surely, Right 
Reverend Sir, you could not wish to take away from the Ca- 
tholic church, (so ancient and so extensive,) what you so stre- 
nuously vindicate for the Protestant Episcopal church, " that 



33 

blessed liberty wherezvith Christ has made us free." But we 
cannot be surpised at this monopoly of privilege. 

You next add, " Do the elements of the holy Eucharist, 
consecrated as the symbols of the sacrifice of Christ, cease to 
convey spiritual health and nourishment to the souls of the 
faithful, because the church of Rome impiously claims for her 
priesthood the power of entirely changing the substance and 
qualities of these elements, while the outward appearances re- 
main the same ; and of offering in the sacrifice of the mass, 
the same adorable personage, body, soul, and divinity, who 
suffered on the cross ?" Now, Right Reverend Sir, with the 
exception of the gratis dictum " impiously f^ I answer this ques- 
tion in the affirmative, and shall adduce my proof. I answer, 
if it be mere„bread and wine, it conveys no spiritual nourish- 
ment at all. 

The doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucha- 
rist, and the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the 
body and blood of Christ, have constantly been a bone of con- 
tention with Protestants, who attempt to construe the words 
of our blessed Lord into a figure, contrary to all just reasoning 
and fair inference. They speak of a mystery, as of a matter 
subjected to their reason, and treat it accordingly. They sup- 
pose that the glorious body of our Redeemer is subjected to 
the same laws of place and motion as their own gross bodies, 
and arguing from this postulate, they endeavour to throw ridi- 
cule on the doctrine of the church. To set this matter in the 
proper point of view, we shall first examine the arguments for 
the doctrine of the real presence. 

The blessed Eucharist is a sacrament ; in some respect, a 
visible sign, type, figure, or symbol of the true body and blood 
of Jesus Christ, and also of his death and passion ; nor is it 
an empty sign, type, figure, or symbol only, but also the very 
natural and substantial body and blood of Jesus Christ, true 
God and man, under the outward signs and symbols of bread 
and wine. For the doctrine of the Catholic church is, that in 
the blessed sacrament of the eucharist, we receive the same 
body, which was given and broken for us, and the same blood 
which was shed for the remission of our sins. " This is my 
body." St. Matt. 26, v. 26, and St. Mark, 14, v. 22. " This 
is my body which is given for you." St. Luke, 22, v. 19. "This 
is my body which shall be delivered for you." 1, Cor. 1 1, v. 24. 
t: This is my blood of the New-Testament, which shall be shed 
for many to the remission of sins." St. Matt. 26, v. 28. St. Mark, 
14, v. 24. " This is the chalice the New-Testament in my 
blood, which shall be shed for you." St. Luke, 22, v. 20. 
* ; This chalice is the New Testament in my blood." 1 Cor. 
11, v. 25. And in proof of these expressions, meaning the 



u 

true, natural, and substantial body and blood of Christ, see 
Ephes. 5, v. 25. " Christ gave himself for his church," — and 
Heb. 9, v. 12. " By his own blood he entered into the ho- 
llies." If the latter scripture texts are to be construed liter- 
ally, so also are the former. If Christ only gave bread and 
shed wine for us, he also gave a fantastical body for us, and 
shed something else than his true natural blood for the remis- 
sion of our sins ; and this is precisely the Manichean heresy. 
, The texts of scripture, cited above, " this is my body," <fec. 
are not by any means cxp essed as figurative, and when liter- 
ally and properly understood, imply neither sin nor contradic- 
tion, for this is impossible with Christ, the essence of sanctity 
and truth ; and as it was possible for Christ to have changed 
the bread and wine into his body and blood, therefore these 
texts ought to be understood literally and properly. We. have 
no right to say that Christ did not mean what he said, when 
he made the declaration, " This is my body — this is my blood ;" 
nor can we by any fair construction say that " This is" means 
" This signifies." No rational or prudent man would ever 
seal or complete his last will and testament with figurative, 
equivocal, and improper words, and of consequence it must be 
blasphemy to charge Christ with doing so. 

"There is," says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 15, v. 14, " a natural 
body, and there is a spiritual body. It is sown a natural body, 
and it is raised a spiritual body ;" so that the condition of 
Christ's body in the blessed sacrament is glorious, impassible, 
incorruptible, immortal. The manner how it is in the blessed 
sacrament, is the same as when he came into the place where 
his aisciples were met with shut doors, spiritual, though real. 
If catholics held the doctrine that the body and blood of Christ 
were carnally present in the blessed sacrament, in the same 
manner as our gross bodies, then we might be chargeable with 
inconsistency ; but we disclaim the honour of being cannibals. 
And although we believe that the whole substance of the bread 
is changed into the substance of his body, and the whole sub- 
stance of the wine into the substance of his blood, the species 
of the bread and wine remaining, we believe, that this trans- 
substantiation takes place in a spiritual and sacramental man- 
ner, a mystery far beyond the power of the senses to compre- 
hend, and this doctrine, although like every other mystery, 
beyond the grasp of our senses, yet is not repugnant to the 
correct principles of philosophy, and is in perfect consonance 
with the express words of the Son of God himself; " This is 
my body, this is my blood," Besides, its truth and consonance 
with our blessed Lord's meaning may be easily gathered from 
the circumstance, formerly hinted at, of his coming into the 
chamber, where his disciples were secretly assembled for fear 



35 

pf die Jews, without any visible mode of entrance, although 
at the same time his sacred body was palpable, or else he 
could not have said to St. Thomas, " reach hither thy hand 
and thrust it into my side." 

St. Paul says ; " whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink 
the chalice oi' the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body 
and the blood of the Lord." How can the unworthy re- 
ceiver be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, if they 
are only figuratively represented 1 No one can be said to be 
guilty in a higher degree than he really is ; if the unworthy 
receive the body and blood of Christ, they become guilty of 
that body and blood ; if they only receive it in figure, they can 
only be figuratively guilty ; but St. Paul says they are guilty 
of the body and blood of the Lord, therefore they receive the 
body and blood of the Lord, not figuratively, but really and 
in substance. Besides, if, according to the doctrine of the 
Protestant Episcopal church, the worthy only receive the 
body and blood of the Lord, it follows of consequence, that 
the unworthy receive not the body and blood of the Lord, and 
therefore cannot become guilty of it. But this the holy apostle 
absolutely contradicts, and therefore the converse of this pro* 
position is only true. 

Our blessed Lord himself makes it as plain as is necessary 
for those who wish to see the truth, when offered, to them, 
when, in the sixth chapter of St. John's gospel, v. 48, he says 5 
M 1 am the bread of life. This is the bread which cometh 
down from heaven ; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. 
I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any 
man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and 'the bread 
that 1 will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. The 
Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying: How can 
this man give us his flesh to. eat ; Then Jesus said to them : 
Amen, Amen, 1 say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the 
son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in 
you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 
everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For 
my flesh is meat indeed ; and my blood is drink indeed. He 
that eateth my /!e>h and drinketh my biood, abideth in me and 
I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by 
the Father ; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by 
me. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not 
as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth 
this bread shall live for ever." In ali this passage, we find 
not the least insinuation ofany figurative meaning intended, 
but the contrary ; for when the Jews, who understood him in 
the gross carnal manner, -which Protestants attribute to the 
Catholics, strove among themselves, say ihg ; "How can this 



36 

man give us his flesh to eat ?" Although he could not but 
know what passed among them, we find not that he endea* 
voured to show them 'that he spoke figuratively. And when 
many of his disciples said ; a this saying is hard, and who can 
hear it?" Jesus said to them, "doth this scandalize you ? 
If then you shall see the son of man ascend up where he was 
before ?" By which he plainly shows, that what he had said 
was to be literally understood, for that when he should ascend 
into heaven, and thereby prove himself to be God, they would 
then be convinced that he had power to make his flesh meat 
and his blood drink. He then subjoins these words ; u It is 
the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The 
words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life," Thereby 
intending, as St. Augustine says, " as they understood it, (the 
flesh) torn in pieces like a dead carcase, and sold in the sham- 
bles, it profits nothing; but it profits as animated by the 
spirit. For if the flesh profiteth nothing, the word would not 
have been made flesh, that it might dwell among us." Here 
still there is nothing figurative, for we are told from that time 
" many of his disciples went back and walked no more with 
him. Then Jesus said to the twelve ; will you also go away ? 
And Simon Peter answered him : Lord, to whom shall we go ? 
Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and 
have known that thou art Christ, the Son of God." In ail this 
we have not one hint that his language had been figurative, 
but that it still was to be understood literally and truly as he 
spake it. The blessed Redeemer of mankind came for too 
compassionate a purpose, ever to have suffered one to have 
gone from him for the want of an explanation, which he would 
undoubtedly have given, had his language been figuratively 
intended ; nor would he have permitted any of his followers 
through a mistaken meaning of his words, to have forsaken 
the way of life. From the passage above quoted from this 
very chapter, if wilful error and obstinate prejudice do not 
shackle us, we have the true key to the literal and not figura- 
tive meaning of Christ's words, " This is my body — This is 
my blood." And we have the concurrent testimony of the 
church from the earliest ages to prove that we are correct. 

St. Ignatius, the martyr, the disciple of the Apostles, wri- 
ting to the Smyrneans, says ; " certain heretics refrain from 
the eucharist and the oblations, because they own not that 
the eucharist is the flesh of our Lord, which suffered for 
our sins, and which the Father through his goodness hath 
raised."* 

* These extracts would have been given in the originals, but the printer's 
Greek types not having come in time, the author thought it better to give a faith- 
ful translation, and tne places carefully marked, than to give mutilated quo- 
tations. 



St. Justin, the martyr, in his 2d apology, near Adrian's re- 
script, says ; " for we do not take these as common bread or 
a common cap *, but as God has taught us. Jesus Christ our 
Saviour having become flesh, and taking flesh and blood for 
our salvation, so are we taught that the eucharist is the flesh 
and blood of the same Jesus incarnate." 

Tertullian adv. Marcion. 1. 4, c. 40. " The bread taken 
and distributed to his disciples, he made his body, by saying, 
this, the figure of my body, is my body." 

St. Cyprian in caena Dom. says ; " the bread which our Lord 
gave to his disciples, being changed, not in shape, but in na- 
ture, by the omnipotency of the word is made flesh." 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. Mystagog. 4, c. 3, says ; 
" know, and be assured, that the bread, which we see, is not 
bread though it hath the taste of it, but is the body of Christ, 
and the wine which we see, is not wine, although the taste ap- 
vear se, but is the blood of Christ." And in his 4. c. 1. " since 
Christ has said of the bread, ; this is my body,' who now 
dares doubt of it ? And he himself having said ' this is my 
blood,' who dares to doubt of it, by saying it is not his 
blood ? He formerly changed water into wine at the wed- 
ding of Cana, by only willing it, why then does he not deserve 
to be believed when he changes the wine into his blood ?" 
St. Gregory Nyssen. Cat. Orat. c. 37, says ; we truly be- 
lieve, even by the word of God, that the sanctified is changed 
into the body of God, the word, and these things he bestows, 
trans dementing (transubstantiating) into it, by virtue of his 
blessing, things that are seen." 

St. John Chrysostom de Sacerdotio, says ; " He that sits 
above with the Father, even in the same instant of time, is 
touched oy the hands of all, and gives himself to such as are 
willing to receive him, &c. whereas Christ leaving his flesh 
to us, yet ascending to heaven hath it also there." 

St. Ambrose, de sacram. 1. 4, c. 5, says ; " the day before 
he suffered, he took bread into his holy hands. Therefore 
Defore it is consecrated, it is bread: but when the words 
of Christ come, it is the body of Christ. Before the words of 
Christ, it is a cup full of wine and water. But when the 
words of Christ have operated, then it become the blood 
which redeemed the people. Consider therefore how power- 
ful the word of Christ is in changing all things. When the 
Lord Jesus himself testifies to us that we receive his body 
and blood, ought we to doubt of his credit or testimony ?"- — 
Andde Initi. c. 9. "If that (Manna) which you admire, is 
a shadow, how great a matter is it, that you admire even a 
shadow ? But light is superior to the shadow, the truth to a 
figure, the body of the original to the manna from heaven. — - 
But if the word of Eiias was so powerful as to call down lire 



38 

from heaven, shall not the word of Christ he ahle to change 
the nature of the elements? Perhaps you may say, I see 
different : how can you assure me that I receive the body of 
Christ ? And this also remains with us to prove. How many- 
examples then do we use to prove, that this is not the same 
thing which nature formed it, but what the benediction has 
consecrated it, and that the power of benediction is greater 
than that of nature, because even nature itself is changed by 
benediction ? Moses held a rod, he threw it down, and it 
became a serpent. Again he seized the tail of the serpent, 
and it returned into the nature of a rod. You see therefore, 
that by prophetic grace the nature of the serpent and of the 
rod Was twice changed. We observe therefore, that grace 
is more powerful than nature." 

But, Right Reverend Sir, besides the testimony of the holy 
Scripture and Fathers of the church, we have the testimony 
of the Protectant . Episcopal church itself for the real pres- 
ence of Christ in the eucharist. In the exhortation at the 
time of the communion, the bread and wine are called Holy 
Mysteries, which term, if they are merely bread a: d wine, 
and remain so after the consecration, is a contradiction ; for 
what holy mystery is there in common bread and wine ? — 
And there being no mystery in common bread and wine, 
there can be no mystery in them after consecration, unless 
gome change take place. The consecrating or setting them 
apart from common uses, which is all that Protestant Epis- 
copalians allow, can by no means render them a mystery, or 
else the edihce of Trinity church, being consecrated or set 
apart from common uses, is also a mystery, which no one 
will be disposed to admit. Again, in the prayer immediate- 
ly following the preface and trisagion, " the priest in name of 
all those who shall receive the communion, says ; Grant us 
therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son 
Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood that our sinful bodies may 
be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his 
most precious blood, and that we may ever more dwell in 
him and he in us;" No Roman Catholic can more strongly 
or pointedly express the real presence of Christ in the eu- 
charist than is done in this prayer. At the distribution of 
the elements, the minister says, when he delivers the bread 
to any, " The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given 
for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life ;" 
and when he delivers the cup ; " The blood of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body 
and soul unto everlasting life." In these two sentences, the 
doctrine of the real presence is affirmatively expressed, and 
they support the doctrine of the church of England expresiedV. 
in her catechism (however altered in this country,) wherein 



» 

she declares that " (he body and blood of Christ are verily 
and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's 
supper." 

By these testimonies from the sacred scriptures, the holy 
Fathers, and even the Protestant Episcopal church, 1 infer, 
that your charge of impiety, brought against the church of 
Rome, is unfounded and rash ; that the doctrine of the Ro- 
man Catholic church is true beyond contradiction ; and that 
I have proved the t/uth of my position, that the elements of 
the holy eucharist, as mere elements, can convey no spiritual 
nourishment whatever. 

Your next observation, Right Reverend Sir, is too abu- 
sive to be worthy of you. " Is preaching to be renounced," 
you say, " as a scriptural ordinance, because, in the ages of 
Papal darkness, it was degraded to the office of celebrating 
the imaginary virtues of the saints whom superstition had 
canonized, and the efficacy of relics which received unlimi- 
ted reverence from the ignorance of the multitude ?" That 
the virtues of the Saints ought to be celebrated, you virtual- 
ly acknowledge, but your denouncing these virtues as imagi* 
nary, must rest upon stronger authority than your own as- 
sertion. If the Saints are to judge the world, as the Holy 
Ghost says they are, certainly their virtues must be great, 
that can exalt them to such a dignity, and therefore they 
must be worthy of imitation. If, therefore, they are worthy 
of imitation, why quarrel with the celebration of those vir- 
tues, as excitements to progress in every christian virtue ? 
Our blessed Lord gives us, among many other lessons of the 
same nature, the example of the good Samaritan, and after 
describing, and celebrating his virtues, ends with a "go and 
do thou likewise." St. Luke 10, v. 37. If Jesus Christ has 
given us an example that we should follow his steps, what 
better authority can we have for celebrating, not the imagi- 
nary> but the real virtues of those, who have surrendered 
all to follow him ? If this be degrading the office of preach- 
ing, we can plead the best authority for it, and I think it may 
be safely continued upon that authority, notwithstanding your 
denunciation. To be sure, if that gospel rule of forsaking all, 
taking up the cross, and following Christ, be superstition, 
we Roman Catholics are guilty, and must of course en- 
counter he opprobrium, with which you have been pleased 
to brand us ; but if it be not, I fear you have committed a 
breach of Christian charity, which you cannot justify. As 
to the virtue of relics, we even venture to put that upon the 
same hrm foundation. We revere the relics of those, who, 
having i put off this mortal coil,' are gone to receive the re- 
compense of their labours, because Elizauis did so, who put 
?uch faith, even in the manUe of his departed master, that he 



divided the water* of the river Jordan, so as to be able to 
go over upon dry ground. 4 Kings, 2, v. 14. We revere 
them because the woman was healed by barely touching the 
hem of Christ's garment* St. Matt. 9, v. 20, 21, 22. And 
chap. 14, v. 36. Because the shadow of St. Peter passing 
by, cured the diseased ; Acts, 5, v. 15. And because hand- 
kerchiefs and aprons brought from the body of St. Paul 
cured the sick, and even cast out demons. Acts, 1 9, v. 1 2. 
For these reasons we reverence the relics of God's chosen 
servants, but not with unlimited reverence, because we re- 
serve that for God alone. 

Your next observation, Right Reverend Sir, seems to 
strike at the root of what you have asserted, both before and 
after, against the Roman Catholic church. For, if the * { same 
fountain cannot pour forth from the sam d ening sweet wa- 
ters and bitter," St. James, 3, v. 11, nor the same tree can 
bring forth good and bad fruit, St. Matt. \ v. 18, so neir: icf 
can the Roman Catholic church, seeing she has fufnisl d 
you with the " wells of salvation," the holy Scriptures, be 
guilty of those gross charges, which you bring against her. 
"Through that church," you say, " you trace the bible to 
the age of inspiration," how therefore can she be guilty of 
those grievous errors and superstitions, with which you charge 
her, when she has produced these sacred volumes pure and! 
unsullied to you ? May she not have corrupted them during 
the acges of darkness and superstition ? Are you sure she 
has not ? 

You proceed, " does Episcopacy lose its claims to a divine 
origin, because on its simple and apostolic foundation has 
been reared the gorgeous and unhallowed structure of the 
Papal hierarchy ?" Permit me here, Right Reverend Sir, 
to ask you in turn, whence comes your Episcopacy ? Comes 
it not from this ' gorgeous and unhallowed structure of the 
Papal hierarchy V Most assuredly you assert that it does ; 
and as our blessed Lord has declared that a " bad tree brings 
forth bad fruit," I now say, that if you come from that tree, 
which however I cannot admit, you prove that you are of the 
same nature. Either your Episcopacy comes from the Pope 
and his church, or it cannot have an existence. I have al- 
ready proved, that without the authority of the Pope there 
can be no Episcopacy and I now assert, that unless you have, 
and can show the authority of the Pope for your Episcopa- 
cy, that Episcopacy is a phantom, produced in the brain of 
the minions of the Virgin queen Elizabeth, and propagated 
as a weed in a fertile garden, where exotic plants find conge- 
nial virtues, to the present time. Your pretensions to an 
Apostolic foundation are vain und nugatory, inasmuch as I 



41 

have amply proved that all the power descending from the 
prince of the Apostles is vested in the Pope, and you cannot 
show even the semblance of concurrence or permission for 
your Episcopacy from him. You may arrogate as much as 
you please from the language of the Holy Fathers, but the 
Methodist Episcopalians, who derive their episcopacy from 
John Wesley, a simple English parson, have as good Episco- 
pal authority as you, and may with as much propriety adduce 
the authority of the Holy Fathers. Since you cannot trace your 
unbroken chain of connexion to these Holy Fathers, of whom 
you boast, you can be none of theirs ; for they always made 
the succession of their bishops one of the first criterions, by 
which they judged of the truth or falsehood of a church. — 
And now, Right Reverend Sir, I cheerfully join with you, 
in paying ; " if some imaginary abuse of an institution ren- 
ders necessary the rejection of it, if legal prerogative justi- 
fies resistance to legitimate power — what is there in religion 
— what is there in civil polity — what is there in the depart- 
ments of science — what is there in social life, that can re- 
main sacred ?" 

As I wish not to go out of the way any further than you 
lead me, I shall not enter into the merits of your Episcopa- 
cy, or else I could prove that it neither was agreeable to 
civil or canon law ; and opposed to both these, its foundation 
must be on sand, which the least force might undermine and 
level with the dust. And that I may not leave this asser- 
tion of mine insulated and without proof, I shall be ready to 
prove, when called upon, that the Episcopacy of England, as 
by law now established, is not only contrary to the canon 
law of the church, but contrary to the municipal laws of 
the kingdom of Great Britain in existence at the time of its 
introduction ; inasmuch as the pretended consecration of Dr. 
Parker and his compeers was contrary to both. Whenever 
you are inclined to put the matter to the test, I am prepar- 
ed to prove, to your conviction, the truth of my assertion. 

I have now, (and I hope to the conviction of every unpre- 
judiced person) proved that the church of Christ is infallible 
in matters of faith ; that the Pope of Rome is Supreme 
head of the visible church of Christ upon earth ; -and that 
the various doctrines of that church, which you have impugn- 
ed, are established upon such a foundation, as that neither 
you, nor a greater than you, can subvert them. I have proved 
that your gratuitous assertions of" papal claims ; papal domi- 
nation, established centuries after Christianity ; that the ancient 
Fathers knew nothing of the pope being the visible head 
of the church on earth; that Papal and Episcopal preroga- 
tive is at variance 5 that the Papal opinion of church unitv 

6 



42 

has no foundation in scripture ; that the papal superstition for 
ages disfigured and concealed the primitive splendour of the 
Christian Zion; and that the precedence of the bishop of Rome, 
which constituted the principle of church unity, was usurped 
centuries after the first ages of Christianity ;" are nugatory, 
and contrary to the truth. Having, 1 say, abundantly proved 
these things, and, as I hope, in the spirit of christian charity, 
let me entreat you to meditate well on what I have said in 
defence of that church, in the bosom of which vou have said 
that you wished to die. 

Recollect, Right Reverend and Dear Sir, that soon, very- 
soon, both you and I shall be called upon to render an account 
of our actions ; and in that dreadful hour no one will rise in 
our defence. As we have acted in this world, so shall we be 
judged. Our zeal, if in a bad cause, will shelter neither yon 
nor me. We have the means of finding out the truth,, and 
we are assured of the assistance of God's grace in the search ; 
and', if we neglect that gracious offer, we shall be inexcusable. 
The Holy Ghost has declared that there is but " one Lord, one 
faith, one baptism," there cannot, therefore, be many faiths, 
and still this unity retained. There must be one church, as 
there is but one faith, as archbishop Land observes, in one of 
his most beautiful productions, 1 mean a prayer, which he 
constantly used. There being therefore but one church, as 
there is but one God, it is our duty to search for that one 
church with all diligence, that we may be within its pale, or 
else, being without the fold, we may run the dreadful risk of 
being placed among those, who ate and drank at our Lord's 
table, and in whose streets lie had taught, we may be dismis- 
sed vith, " I know you not." Much has been lately written, 
my Dear Sir, by those who belong to your church, respecting 
the true religion, or rather against the church of Rome, and 
very little to the purpose. The spirit of charity did not pre- 
side over their words, nor over their sentiments. I wish not 
to call them up, from any vindictive feeling, although I am 
wed aware that some of their shafts were levelled at me ; but 
I do so for the purpose of pointing out to their brethren, that 
their hearts were not right. They took many things for 
granted, because they had been said before, and they, without 
further consideration, without examination, dealt them out for 
truths, which had been proved. Of this number is the Reverend 
Samuel F. Jarvis, who in his sermon before the convention 
in Trinity church, threw the first stone at an unoffending, and, 
till that time unoffended church in the United States. He 
was followed- by an anonymous pamphlet, dictated in all the 
spirit of rancour and malignity, and said to be written by the 
late Reverend Doctor John Bowden. but very far different 



43 

■ 

from the urbanity and kind heart of that gentleman, and which 
I do not hesitate thus publicly to declare to be contradictory 
to others of his publications. Next followed the Reverend 
Doctor Thomas Yardly Howe, who, in the feebleness of his 
wrath, endeavoured to wreak his vengeance on a church, of 
which he knew little more than the name. All these trilling 
and malevolent productions were levelled against an unoffend- 
ing trio, Dr. John Kewley, Mr. V. H. Barber, and my unwor* 
thy self, because we had ventured to look over the wall, and 
see whether the pastures of our old grandmother, the church 
of Rome, were more safe, if they were not more savoury to 
flesh and blood, than those really barren, yet flowery pastures, 
in which we had been hitherto fed. These productions would 
have met with a merited retort, had not Divine Providence 
seen fit that it should be otherwise. But now, when you, who 
have more than once expressed your wish to pass the end of 
your days in the bosom of the Roman Catholic church* come 
forth, armed with all the dignity and all the influence of office, 
it is necessary that you should meet with an answer ; and I p 

am only sorry that the hand has not been more powerful. Yet 
Almighty God sometimes " chooses the foolish things of this 
world to confound the wise, and weak things to confound the 
strong," and herein I have consolation. My sole aim in this 
answer has not been to refute your positions so much as to .1 

point out the truth. I wish not to be an angry polemic, be- 
cause I do not conceive myself calculated for the task, either 
naturally or mentally, but by the persuasive words of unadorn- 
ed truth, to induce my brethren to examine for themselves, as 
I have done, and thus endeavour to follow their Lord's will. 
And may Almighty God send his grace into their hearts, that 
they may be enabled to discern truth from falsehood, the 
-straight path from error, and true religion from hypocrisy ; 
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

I am, Right Reverend Sir, 

Your most obedient humble servant, 

GEORGE EDMUND IRONSIDE. 

Washington City, 2 J Feb. 1820. 

* The author unequivocally disclaims the least reproach or malevolent in- 
tention against Bishop Hobartby this expression, as he is well aware that other 
prelates of the Protestant church have expressed nearly the same sentiment, 
declaring, "That the Protestant religion was the most convenient, wherein to 
live, but the Catholic religion the most safe, wherein to die." 







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Military Academy, Academic Staff; Ca- tx 
dets ; Pay, &c. of the Army. 

Commissary General of Purchases. 

Indian Trade; Superintendent; Factors; 

Indian Agents and Sub Agents. 



MARINE CORPS. 

Lieutenant Colonel Commandant ; Cap? 
tains ; First Lieutenants ; Second Lieute- 
nants. 

Pay, &c. of the United States Navy ; Pay 



Judges of the Supreme Court ; 
Attorney General, and Clerk ; 
Judges, Attorneys, Marshals, and Clerks 
of the District Courts of the United States. 



Lc. of the Officers of the Marine Corps. 
Navy Agents ; 

Vessels of War of the United States. 
JUDICIARY. 

Circuit and District Courts for the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. 
Territorial Courts. 






[Concluded on following page.] 




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g] 



[NATIONAL CALENDAR... .contents. ...Conc/t^rf/rom preceding page.] 
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Senators ; Secretary, Clerks, and Officers 
Representatives; Clerk, Clerks, and Of- 
ficers ; Library, Librarian. 

Compensation and Privileges of merj 
bers of Congress. 
Committees of the Senate. 



The manner of appointing Committees ; 
their, powers and duties. 

Representative Population of the Unitedjfp 
States, in 1810. 

Number of Representatives from each 
State at four periods, viz: the adoption off 



Committees of the H. of Representatives, the Constitution ; in 1790, in 1800, in 1810 

STATE GOVERNMENTS. 



Size, Boundaries, and Geographical po- 
ition of each State in the Union. 

Dates at which the present State Consti- 
tutions were adopted. 

Dates at which each of tLe States became 
a member of the Confederation. 

Names of the actual Governors of the 



with the Seats of State Govern 



States, 
ments. 

Legal title and military authority of the 
Governors of the several States. 



In what bodies the Legislative authority 
in each state is vested. 

Election of Governors of the several 
States ; their Qualifications, Powers, &c. 

Qualifications of Electors in each State, 
for the members of State Legislatures and 
Governors. 

Qualifications of the Members of the 
State Legislatures of the several States, a 
specified in the respective State Constitu 
tions. 

Powers of the State Legislatures. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 



sy 



iss 



m 



Organization of the Executive Depart- 
ments of the United States. 

List of Patents granted for useful inven- 
tions, &c. in 1819; of the laws relative to 
Patents, and the manner of obtaining them. 

List of Copy Rights of Books, deposited 
in the Department of State, in 1819; ab- 
stract of the laws concerning Copy Rights, 
and the method of securin, them. 

List of Colleges in the United States. 

A Tariff of Duties payable on Goods, 
Wares, and Merchandise imported in the 
United States. 

Explanations and Decisions made by the 
Treasury Department 

Articles free of Duty ; Tonnage Duty and 
Light Money ; the Fisheries ; Tare and 
Draft, and Allowances ; Regulations re- 
specting Drawback. 

Exports, in 1819 ; to what countries ex- 
ported ; Summary of their value from each 
State. 

Amount of Exports from 1790 to 1319, in- 
clusive. 

Coins and Currency ; denomination and 

intrinsic value of the coins of the United 

States ; 'legal currency and value of foreign 

,„■ . „ - - i r . List of Newspapers authorized to publish 

coins, and the intrinsic value of uncurrent , T . r TT .. j c . -.i .f 

' . the Laws of the United States,, with the pro- 

toreien coins. . . , , , !->,-.■ 

b pnetors 7 names, and places ot publication. 

Foreign Ministers, Consuls, and Agents, 
in the United States, with their places of Brief Historical Review of the year 1819. 
residence. Almanac for 1820. 

Embellished with 
An ELEGANT MAP of the CITY OF WASHINGTON, and GEORGETOWN, 
With the Public Buildings, Bridges, &c. 



Organization, Strength, and Distribution, 
of the Army of the United States. 

List of Fortifications, Posts, Arsenals, and 
Armouries. 

Navy Yards ; their size and original cost. 
Flag of the United States. 

Public Lands sold north west of the river 
Ohio, from 1801 to 1819; and in Mississippi 
and Alabama, from 1807 to 1819 ; with the 
balances due to the United States, on ac- 
count of such sales. 

Post Office Establishment ; 

Post Master General; Assistants, Clerks. 

Rates oi Postage. 

Governors of Territories. 

Method of doing Business at the Public 
Offices, in the City of Washington ; with 
engravings and floor plans of the Executive 
Offices, and a Directory for the several De- 
partments. 

A general description of the City of Wash- 
ington ; sale of City Lots ; Public Property' 
in the City ; Assessments ; Bills of Health 
Improvements in the city up to December,! 
1819. 



SEP 18 1945 



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